


Shining Light

by TwilightMaster15



Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Babysitting, Belonging, Childhood Friends, Eventual L/Yagami Light, Family Secrets, Fencing, Friendship, Growing Up, M/M, Ryuk kind of raises Light, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:55:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 41,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25520953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwilightMaster15/pseuds/TwilightMaster15
Summary: Bored beyond comprehension, Ryuk decides after seeing what humans do with the Death Note, to experiment with what would happen if a human lived their whole life with access and knowledge of the Death Note. This leads him to find four-month-old Light Yagami, whom he decides to use as his test subject and has a little fun.Light's parents, as with anybody else, can't see Ryuk and thus think Light is possessed, so while trying to find answers, Soichiro turns to a young cadet for assistance taking care of his son.Light grows up knowing he is different but rarely bored with Ryuk by his side throughout his whole life and having little interest in using the Death Note, as it's no fun if he had it his entire life. But things become even more interesting when someone else with the Death Note begins using it as the mass killer known as Kira.Add in a dumbfounded detective and a task force all aware of Light's situation and far past caring, and Ryuk knows he made the right choice because he's found plenty of entertainment, even though he has to fight the protective instinct he's developed towards Light.
Relationships: L/Yagami Light, Ryuk & Yagami Light
Comments: 238
Kudos: 961





	1. Chapter 1

Ryuk had been told countless times throughout his long existence, that this feeling wasn't normal, or that there was something extremely wrong with him. And maybe there was because he was sure this feeling so terrible he felt as though he was going mad was not something the others experienced.

This feeling, as he had learned maybe a century ago from his elders, was boredom. He had heard others laughing and saying he was just young, and that was why he was different from the others who couldn't differentiate one day from the next until everything became an unclear blur.

For the others, they were content, feeling nothing, and existing for no particular purpose. Ryuk had heard tales back when he had first gained sentience that once the Shinigami were bowed down to by humans, and this now dead realm was beautiful. What had happened? He wondered every day, and he had asked countless questions about where they came from and what their purpose was other than playing cards and occasionally writing names of humans to stay alive. He knew that given a little time, every Shinigami just gave up on existence, whether from laziness or a sincere desire to not suffer through boredom, Ryuk didn't know.

The only life Ryuk knew was an uncontained feeling of no entertainment nor happiness, and as time passed, it was growing more and more frustrating to be bored. And once the frustration set in, so did the listlessness that only made boredom all the more irritating. Then when it reached that point, it became exhausting to do the simplest of tasks.

Maybe he wasn't so different from others if they had all reached this point and simply forgotten in the haze of existence. But what made Ryuk different was that he remembered it all. 

After the tiredness, the hysteria and insanity of cravingto do something, _anything,_ to get the boredom off his mind, seemed to drag him down.

He was probably around nine-hundred when he came across Gelus, who was watching from an enchanted pool used for seeing humans to write names of. Ryuk looked down, "Whatcha looking at?"

Gelus looked up, "I'm watching the humans." Ryuk sat down with him, deciding to watch them too. He had occasionally done so, but usually, they were just walking around and minding their business. He frowned a bit at them, cocking his head as he noticed that some humans were carrying smaller humans. The tiny humans were very different from the big ones—they didn't seem to understand language, and shrieked a lot. Why did they do that?

Ryuk grinned a bit as an idea came to him. He didn't want to watch from afar. He wanted to go down there and see things for himself. The human world certainly was prettier to look at than the dusty wastes that were the Shinigami realm.

It took a little while to wait for another Shinigami to turn to dust from laziness, claim ownership of their Death Note left behind before it too turned to ash, and then steal Sidoh's for fun, sneaking down to the human world. 

But once he got down there and saw the fascinating terrain, he knew that he never wanted to return to the dreary lands he had been forced to call home.

He wondered what a human would do with the Death Note, so he tried it with a couple adults, and he found himself very disappointed that most of them just screamed at the sight of him and renounced ownership, or they never used it to begin with. They were all so dull.

His mind wandered as he held one of the Death Notes in his hands, and he got a new idea. He had learned these tiny humans were called babies or infants, and they grew and learned to become adults. He hadn't really seen how babies work, and he was curious. What if he gave the Death Note to an infant and saw what happened as it grew up?

He laughed at the idea, flying down to one of the markets and stealing an apple. The plan certainly sounded interesting, but where was he going to find a tiny human? From what he could tell, humans were very protective of their offspring, so was it possible?

Ryuk looked up at the moon, still confused by the concept of humans differentiating the days using this sun and moon. It helped them have an idea of time and made it easier to remember things. _So interesting._

He flew around this city he had learned was called Tokyo in search of a tiny human for which to stay until the end of its life to see what it did with a Death Note.

It was around midnight when he found what humans called the suburbs, and he peeked into different "houses" to see what there was to see. There were a couple babies, but all of them flipped out within seconds of seeing him, so he didn't get time to explain anything to it.

Then he found the Yagami household, as he saw was the name on the gate, and he looked inside, hearing the cries of an infant, and he found the little thing waving its arms and legs around, laying on its back in a wooden cage. Why was it crying? Maybe he could finally learn why they did that. Sure, the others had started, seemingly out of fear, but this one was already shrieking. 

He stared down at the child, Light Yagami. Alright, this thing had a decent amount of lifespan—not much by Ryuk's standards of being close to a thousand, but for humans, almost eighty years was probably a lot. Time to see if this one was worthwhile. He tapped the thing—Light, he corrected himself, and it was a he, not an it—with the Death Note, knowing he would have to hold onto the notebook until the little creature was 780 days old so _he_ could have official ownership. Looking at it, he guessed the creature was maybe a single hundred days old.

Light instantly stopped screaming and looked up at Ryuk with reddish-brown eyes. He was dead quiet for a moment before a smile formed on his face, and he laughed, utterly unaware of the miseries of human life, and how Ryuk had noticed misfortune befell humans who had ownership of the Death Note. His tiny hand grasped Ryuk's clawed finger and held tight, still smiling.

Ryuk backed up a bit, content to stare at the human from a distance. Light didn't seem to like that and rolled off his back, grabbing at the bars of his cage and using them to stand, bouncing a bit where he stood clearly off-balance and began making unhappy noises.

Did it just want attention? It certainly didn't seem afraid as it continued to bounce, its feet not getting off the soft surface it had been laying on, but the ground below it had a give, so he watched the baby's head bob up and down and up and down as he used one hand to let go of the bars and reach for Ryuk.

Deciding the baby wanted attention, he picked it up, realizing quickly just by feeling it, how delicate humans were. He had to be careful, or he might accidentally kill it, and then where would he be?

Light laughed again, reaching up at Ryuk's face and smiling, before sticking one of his hands in his mouth. Ryuk examined the baby, noticing that while most infants seemed to be bald, this one had a full head of pale brown hair. All things considered, the tiny human was quite cute.

Did it talk? Did humans need to learn to speak?

Ryuk blinked, seeing Light was doing something new, putting one of his hands to his neck and then moving it down towards his stomach, and repeating this motion.

Well, now was as good a time as any to explain what he was doing here. "I am the Shinigami, Ryuk," he explained, and this didn't seem offputting to the human, who continued to giggle happily, reaching towards the notebook at Ryuk's hip, "That's right, that is a Death Note, and you have one too. You'll get to use it for whatever you want. Just make it interesting, and give me apples."

"Ry!" Light continued to smile, seemingly trying to say Ryuk's name, but settled for the moment on, "Ry!"

Ryuk reminded himself to add this to his journal of things he had learned about humans. So it seemed that infants were just as clueless as newborn Shinigami—they didn't know anything except a basic survival instinct, except tiny humans seemed to act upon it by screaming. It didn't make sense to Ryuk. When a Shinigami came to be, they just appeared the way they would be for however long they existed, but humans grew and needed to avoid things that could kill them, so why did they not know how to move around or speak their own? It seemed like a huge disadvantage.

But this human was different—there hadn't seemed to be anything wrong with him when he was crying, and he had stopped doing so when he saw Ryuk, which meant he probably just wanted attention. Was that normal? Something about this human felt almost like a kindred spirit, different from the rest of his kind. 

He jerked to the side, startled when he heard a high-pitched scream from a woman who, judging by the name, was Light's... what was the word... mother? Yeah, his mother. And she couldn't see Ryuk, so to her, her offspring was simply floating in midair. He contemplated touching her with the Death Note but realized that might interfere with his plans of seeing what happened if a human had the notebook their whole lives.

It did leave him unsure of what to do because now he had been caught holding the infant. Well, might as well have fun with this. Light's parents didn't have to know about Shinigami or the Death Note, but their son floating or random unexplainable happenings would be fun to cause and interesting to see the reactions.

He kept holding the baby and walked out the door into the hallway to see what there was to see in this house if he was going to be staying here for a while. 

From upstairs, he heard Sachiko screaming for her husband, but seeing as there was no second person in the house, he realized she must be using a cell phone to get in contact with Light's father.

He put Light on the couch, and the baby flopped over, only to roll and support himself on the cushions so he could continue staring at Ryuk, once again loudly saying, "Ry!" as though that was his new favorite word. And from what Ryuk could tell, that might be his only word.

Sachiko ran down and noticed her offspring on the couch, and she rushed over to him, pulling him close and trying to assure him, and Ryuk laughed because Light was still smiling.

Yeah, this child wasn't like others. 

_This is going to be interesting._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just gonna say, I am using anime years since it's easier for me to understand the tech of the time period, but I have read the manga. So the starting year here of Ryuk meeting Light is 1989.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have never gotten that many kudos so quickly. Glad to hear a lot of people like the concept.

"I'm telling you, Soichiro," Sachiko shrieked as dawn broke, and her panicked husband had rushed home from an all-nighter at work to see what was wrong with their son. "He's possessed!"

Soichiro ran a hand through his messed up hair. He had just gotten the promotion of a lifetime, which he hadn't dared to hope for years, but now something was wrong with Light. He looked to the baby in question, who was sitting on the couch, smiling up at him and grabbing for him. He softened at the sight of his baby and picked Light up,

"Ry!" He frowned, hearing the delighted shrieks from the child. He already could tell Light was far more intelligent than other children, but was he actually saying something, or was this only typical baby babble?

"He was floating!" Sachiko shrieked, "He was crying and then laughing, so I came to check on him and—and he was hovering five feet in the air!"

"Sachiko," Soichiro held his son at arm's length. There certainly didn't seem to be anything wrong with him, except he was moving his hand saying he was hungry, "Are you sure you weren't half asleep?"

"Are you calling me a liar?!" Sachiko screamed, still clearly horrified by what she had seen, and Soichiro was quick to set Light in his high chair and turn to assure his wife,

"Of course not. I don't doubt what you saw. I was just suggesting that maybe it looked like Light was floating, but he wasn't."

Sachiko was pointing behind him, and Soichiro turned, only to jump back with a yelp as he saw that, sure enough, his son was floating.

Light didn't appear bothered by this at all, laughing happily and seemingly having the time of his life. For a moment, Soichiro had nothing to say, too dumbfounded to process what was happening in front of him. But once Light was high enough in the air that even he wasn't tall enough to pull him down, he was snapped out of it and got on the couch with a broom to grab Light.

He used the broom and tried to slowly guide Light downward so Sachiko could grab him, but he quickly realized that Light remained unmoving, or floating around the room.

It took literally jumping off the couch and diving at Light, crashing into the table, to get Light down. Soichiro shielded his son with his body, pulling the baby close, glad he was finally down. 

Light began to cry, and Soichiro held him gently, "Shhh, it's okay, Light. Nobody's going to hurt you. I've got you." He winced at the pain in his back, hating to hear his child's cries.

Sachiko looked on the brink of passing out, "There's something wrong with him, Soichiro!"

"I will agree there's something weird going on," Soichiro laid down on the couch, and Light was sitting on his chest. "What do you suggest we do?"

"Go find some answers!" She pointed at Light, who had decided to lay on his stomach on Soichiro's chest, locked eyes with his father, and continued using sign language to say he was hungry.

Soichiro got up and put Light back in the high chair, grabbing some apple sauce and giving it to Light, who made a bit of a mess but was determined to feed himself. From the books he had read, Light was learning much faster than most babies did, and adding onto the floating, he wondered if there really was something else going on.

"If we're going to find answers, I doubt we can take Light with us since he's too young to be out adventuring for long periods," he looked to Sachiko, who had finally sat down and made herself some tea, "So what are we supposed to do?" He looked, and his eyes widened, seeing the apple sauce and the spoon were floating, as though something was feeding Light, who continued to happily say, "Ry!"

...

Ryuk observed Light's parents, laughing at their panic. He certainly hadn't expected the father to dive at Light like that—it had caught him off guard enough that he had let go. At the moment, he was trying to learn more about humans and noticed that what he was feeding Light seemed to be apples mushed up. He licked some off Light's cheek, causing the baby to giggle, and Ryuk frowned. It was inferior to fresh apples, but he supposed he would prefer this over no apples.

Sachiko and Soichiro continued to talk about what they planned to do, and it was highly amusing to Ryuk since the mother was talking about psychics and priests, which Ryuk knew full well would do nothing against a God of Death, but it did bring him pause. Some of the other humans he had used for amusement mentioned those who worshipped the guy on the cross—what was that religion called? Christianity, right?—liked to ruin people's lives for being different, so would this make the experiment harder?

Whatever. He could lay low if some exorcist tried to show up, and that would be even funnier if only the parents knew Light had an otherworldly friend.

Then they started talking about getting a "babysitter." Why would they want someone to sit on their baby? Ryuk looked at Light, who was staring back at him as though he didn't have any idea what was going on either. Light reached for the spoon and got back to attempting to feed himself. At least this kid wanted to be independent and survive—it made him above other tiny humans.

Well, whatever this babysitter was, it was without a doubt going to be amusing, and Ryuk knew without a doubt he had made the right choice with this human.

OoOoO

It was a week of searching for a babysitter who wouldn't question the floating baby before Soichiro decided to look into the police academy. A cadet would surely help him and at least not run away screaming. So he looked through the newest group until two names caught his eye.

Shuichi Aizawa was one of the newest cadets, one of the youngest in his class, having turned eighteen about two months ago, but already had the best scores, and there were notes that he had the potential to rise in the ranks quickly. He seemed to have already developed a partnership with Hideki Ide, which would also come in handy for being an officer.

So after the classes ended, Soichiro approached the young man, "Excuse me, you're Shuichi Aizawa, right?" 

The boy looked up, and his eyes widened, "Chief Yagami!" He bowed, and Soichiro chuckled,

"It's alright. I've been looking at your scores, Aizawa, and I was hoping you could help me with something this weekend if you're available, and you can't tell anyone about what you see." 

Aizawa looked up, "Of course! What do you need?"

OoOoO

Of all the things Aizawa had thought when Chief Soichiro Yagami, a legend at the academy, approached him personally and asked for a favor, he should have expected it to be babysitting. Yet, he still found himself surprised by it. Why was the Chief asking a teen cadet to watch his infant son for the weekend? Weren't there other, much more qualified people for that?

He shrugged, noticing a message from Ide. The Chief had given him a notebook with notes about taking care of the baby and mentioned that while working alone was preferred, he could call Ide for assistance if needed. Aizawa shrugged, because how hard could it be to take care of one kid?

Light was sitting in his playpen in the living room, babbling in a language only he understood and seeming satisfied with his stuffed fox.

Aizawa sat on the couch before reading through the notebook, and his brow furrowed, seeing one that if the baby started floating, to use the butterfly net by the coat closet to get him down. _What?_ Some of these messages made it seem the baby was possessed or something and judging by the handwriting, those notes had been written by Mrs. Yagami.

It was an honor to be trusted to take care of the Chief's son, and he knew that he would have to do his best with this, even if it meant not ignoring the notes about possession. He also noticed one saying that Light preferred when people spoke aloud, and so Aizawa looked at the baby.

"Aren't you happy I'm here to take care of you, young child?"

Light looked up at him and smiled, replying, "No!" 

Aizawa narrowed his eyes, "You know, you could at least pretend." 

"No!" 

This kid was roughly four months old, right? Were babies supposed to talk that early? Aizawa shrugged, because that really didn't matter, and noticed that he was supposed to feed Light in about ten minutes. He took Light out of the playpen and brought him into the kitchen,

"I'll feed you. Just... uh..." he sat Light on the burner of the stove, "Stay there." He took a bottle of milk out of the fridge, "Warm the milk... okay, how do I do that? The toaster? The microwave?" He checked the notes, "Warm water, alright." 

He warmed the milk and handed it to Light, who took the bottle. 

Aizawa rechecked the notes, and looking at them, part of him feared that one day he was going to go and grab this child, and Light wasn't going to be there anymore. But he shook this off as ridiculous because while he seemed abnormally intelligent, there wasn't anything supernatural about Light.

Next on the list was to bathe Light before bed. That was—

He looked up, and Light was gone. 

"What the fu—where'd the kid go?!" Aizawa looked around because surely a four-month-old couldn't get far. _Okay, I was kidding about the maybe he won't be there anymore, but he's not there. Where is he?! The Chief's never going to trust me again!_

After searching for a good five minutes, hearing Light's laughter, he found the kid covered in dirt and dust bunnies, sitting on the couch and clapping. Aizawa looked and saw one of the vents in the floor was open. If the kid had gotten down there... how did he get out?

"How did you get there?!" He asked, and Light just laughed, so Aizawa picked him up, "Alright, little Satan, come here. You got in the vents, so now I have a reason to bathe you." He put Light on the counter while he went to fill up the bathtub, "Stay there." While he waited, he looked to Light, who tried to crawl off the counter, and he had to dive and catch the child, "How're you doing, baby? Still hate me?"

Light blinked innocently up at him, and Aizawa sighed, unsure if he should take that as a yes or not, and then he realized that he lacked in a new onesie for Light, but this time he was not letting this kid out of his sight.

He entered the nursery and put Light on the changing table while he grabbed a new onesie, and he frowned, seeing a weird object on the dresser.

"What the hell is this?" He picked it up and turned to Light as though the kid would know, "Is this from your parents' D&D LARP sessions? It looks like the Sword of Omens from _ThunderCats_." He handed it to Light, who started gumming at it. He checked the notes,

_If Light starts acting like a little devil, use the talisman. It seems to calm him down._

Mrs. Yagami's handwriting. Now, did she mean this metaphorically or literally?

He grabbed a onesie, only for the clothing to float out of his hands and down the hall. His eyes widened as he watched it go, not entirely processing what his eyes were telling him was happening, and then he chased after it, "What the—"

He caught the onesie and decided that maybe he should bring the butterfly net with him.

It was at this moment that Aizawa knew he fucked up. He had left the baby alone.

Sure enough, the baby was gone when he arrived. "Shit." He checked the bathroom, and Light was not there, but the water was far too warm for a child, so he was content to leave that be in his search for Light.

"Hey, kid, where the hell are you?" He walked downstairs, mumbling to himself, "The Chief didn't tell me his child phases through solid objects or gets into the vents. I should have asked about that." 

Aizawa sighed in relief when he saw Light sitting in his high chair, still gumming at the talisman, "Oh, you moved yourself over to the high chair." _This kid basically takes care of himself!_

Well, maybe he was just hungry, and the milk hadn't been enough.

"Alright, Light," he looked in the fridge, "Do you like kewpie? Because that's what we got." 

The room suddenly went dark. Aizawa sucked in a breath as he heard Light begin to cry. Maybe talking aloud would help him out here?

"Okay. Lights turned off randomly, no big deal." He walked over with the food, seeing the outline of a child and sitting next to him, "This is why you never want to work in suburbia for a family that looks perfect. You ever see a single Mom with a possessed child like this? Nooo." He handed the kid the food, and he grabbed a flashlight out of his messenger bag, waiting a few moments before picking up the still dirty baby, which he supported with his arm. Thankfully he hadn't needed a diaper change yet.

Aizawa checked his watch. He hadn't been here for three hours yet, and he still had the rest of the weekend! No wonder the Chief was paying him so well for this and had given him a ton of spending money to use as needed.

"Come on, little Nightcrawler," he said, and Light looked up at him, "Let's go find the circuit breaker. This is gonna be a little adventure." Light did not seem amused, so Aizawa grabbed the talisman in the same hand as his flashlight, "Look, I have your favorite otherworldly Cthulhu tool." He handed it to the baby and wiped off the slobber which was covering it onto his jeans.

He tried to remember where in the notes it had said the circuit breaker was, and he figured either it would be in the coat closet or the garage.

The sound of an opening door made him jump a little bit as he saw the coat closet door open. Aizawa expected Light to be scared, but instead, he giggled and used his free hand to reach out towards the open door,

"Ry!"

Aizawa pursed his lips. He had been willing to pass over a lot of weird things, but somewhere between the floating onesie and now this door opening on its own, and the baby being perfectly happy with this made him realize that maybe the whole "baby is possessed" thing in the notes wasn't as stupid as he had initially thought.

He shined the flashlight into the closet, and he swore his heart momentarily skipped a beat when he saw, in what he hoped was red paint, two words:

FEED ME.

Then he got his bearings and scoffed, looking down at Light, who was smiling, "I should pay your parents for this. This is the best babysitting experience I've ever had." He looked back up at the paint, noticing that it was nowhere near dried enough for it to have been a planned prank from the Chief, and he knew for sure it hadn't been here when he grabbed the net. "I've never gotten to fight the supernatural and deal with the poltergeist child all in one night." He gestured to the paint, "Can you get rid of this, kid? I don't want your parents to see this. I fed you."

Did he actually expect a response? No. But it made the baby laugh, and if he was keeping the kid happy, he had half of his job done. This whole situation was weird, but if he was going to be an officer, he couldn't run away because of some paint and opening doors.

He flipped the circuits to turn the power back on and sighed in relief when the lights came on.

The baby was fed, clothing was collected, supernatural occurrences were dealt with, but the kid was still covered in dirt from ending up in the vents. That was next on the priority list, but that didn't change the fact that every time he went to clean this child, something new and exciting started to happen in the world of demonology. 

Walking back upstairs, he made quick work of getting Light into the tub in a seat meant for babies, since Aizawa was pretty sure the typical bathtub for infants wasn't going to cut it with this disaster.

He was content to let Light sit in the chair and play with rubber ducks for a little while, and he frowned when he noticed Light putting them on the edge of the bath in a line and then shoving them off, and becoming unhappy when they actually fell where he couldn't reach. 

Aizawa rolled up his sleeves, handed the ducks to Light, grabbed a wet washcloth, and used it to clean off Light's face, and used a cup full of water to get Light's hair wet, using his hand to shield the child's eyes from the water.

When he ignored the less than normal aspects of this, Aizawa realized that all things considered, this babysitting job was quite easy. Light was extremely well-behaved, and if he managed to sleep well, this weekend might not be as insane as he had feared.

Light grabbed Aizawa's cap off his head, trying to put it on himself, causing Aizawa to roll his eyes, "That's not for you."

"Suchi!"

Aizawa frowned, noticing Light was looking dead at him. He assumed the kid was trying to say Shuichi, but... he thought back and realized that, to his knowledge, he had only been called by his surname around Light.

How did Light know his name?

He shook it off. Of course, he didn't know everything, so maybe Light had just heard his name at some point before this. There was no need to add this to the list of weird things that had happened tonight.

Aizawa pulled Light out of the bath and dried him off, quickly grabbing a new diaper from under the sink and getting the kid ready for bed.

...

Ryuk watched the human, frowning deeply. Everything that had Sachiko screaming seemed to barely bother this new human! Shuichi was both parts fascinating and infuriating. He wanted to see humans screaming, and this one only responded with sarcasm and a lack of acknowledgment.

Time to pull out the secret weapon. He picked Light up.

Shuichi stared for a moment, blinked a couple times, and then didn't respond at all. It was like he didn't care!

"I've got your blanket," Shuichi said as though he was bored, "Do you want it, or...? Listen, as long as your head isn't doing 360s, I'm good—and no, that is not a challenge."

Typically humans not being afraid of him would be fine. However, when he was actually trying to scare this human, he was quite put out by no dramatic reaction to his attempts, and he had already eaten every apple in the house. Unless he could get this human to the store, withdrawals would start to kick in.

He still had the rest of the weekend to think of new things. Scaring Shuichi Aizawa was going to be a new project for his amusement, and he would not be satisfied until he got more of a reaction than quickly startled and then going back to normal.

...

Aizawa watched Light float down the hall and into his bedroom. "Alright, bye." He still followed the kid, seeing him hovering in the middle of the room, "Hey. Are you going to sleep? Okay." He closed the door, "Bye." He went back into the bathroom to grab the net, knowing he had nothing better to do than go into a room with a child defying gravity. _Well, this is what I'm getting paid for. Surely taking care of this kid will help with being a police officer. If I can take care of this kid, I can do anything._

He then remembered the toy from downstairs and grabbed the stuffed fox in hopes of Light being happy with that and went back upstairs, using the butterfly net to capture Light and lower him to the ground, only for the kid to drop out of nowhere. Aizawa had to take advantage of quick reaction time and spin the net to instead catch Light and hold him. 

He laid Light down in his crib, and Light happily took his stuffed fox. Aizawa nodded to himself, "I'm gonna go watch TV and wait until you inevitably wake up at 2am. Don't get demonically possessed while I'm gone." He shut the door behind him and made it about two steps down the stairs before he heard the door open, and he spun around, "What did I say about not getting demonically possessed? Stop opening the door!" He locked eyes with Light, who was staring back at him, and he shut the door again, only for the door to open again.

Realizing this was a battle he couldn't win, he decided that there was no issue in leaving the door open as he took out his phone, realizing now that he might be in a little over his head.

"Hideki, I might need your help with this."

_"Why? It's just babysitting, right?"_

"Yeah, but there is a bit more here than I expected. You don't have to help—"

_"I'll be there in half an hour. Should I bring something to eat?"_

Aizawa smiled, glad for some assistance from his friend, "Yeah. I don't think turning on the stove or the oven is a good idea."

_"I'll see you soon."_

"See you soon." He hung up, looking back up the stairs. If they were going to get this done, they were going to get it right the first time and not fail the Chief.

Two police cadets against a seemingly superpowered or maybe possessed baby. This wasn't what he had expected at all, but he had assured the Chief that his son would be in good hands, and he had no plans of letting him down. 


	3. Chapter 3

Aizawa waited impatiently on the couch, groaning since five minutes ago, Light had decided to float down the stairs and onto the sofa, where he now sat, looking deceptively innocent.

It was probably not a good idea to let the child stay up, but what could he really do? If he was lucky, Light would go to sleep on his own, and then they could just keep an eye on him.

He finally heard a knock at the door and rushed to it to bring in his best friend, who was holding... something. 

"What the hell is that?" He asked, gesturing to the thing wrapped in paper in Ide's arms, "Look at the size of this thing, it looks like a friggin floatation device made of meat!"

Ide looked down at it, "I wanted to just get some pizza, but Obaachan said to just take this uncooked meatloaf over for the weekend." He smiled sheepishly, holding it up, "Sorry." 

Aizawa rolled his eyes, "It's okay. The little gremlin is on the couch last I che—hey!" He had turned just in time to see Light had crawled across the hall and was trying to lift up the grate to the vent again. He ran over to stop him, cringing as he realized the kid needed a diaper change. "I'll deal with finding a recipe, can you...?"

Ide nodded, putting the meatloaf on the counter and taking Light, "Yeah, I can do that. Is this why you needed my help?"

Aizawa fought back a laugh because this was going to be admittedly somewhat amusing, "No. You'll see."

...

Ide shrugged and walked upstairs to change the kid, which was pretty easy, and Light was pretty compliant except for trying to roll off the table while Ide was putting on the new diaper and putting on the onesie again.

He looked down at the smiling child, "I don't see why Shuichi needed help with you. You don't seem so bad." He tickled Light's exposed stomach, earning small giggles...

Ide then sneezed, turning away for a split second, and when he looked back, Light was gone.

His eyes widened, looking around to see where the kid could have possibly gone in the span of a couple seconds. _Where's he gone?! Oh… shit. This is probably what Shuichi meant._

He looked around upstairs before shouting, "Hey, Shuichi, I think I know what you were talking about."

He heard Aizawa's shout from downstairs, "He's down here."

Ide walked down and saw Light sitting on the floor in the kitchen, watching Aizawa grabbing some ingredients for the meatloaf, and he was watching the kid.

"Why'd you move?" He asked Light, "If you can walk, why don't you do this yourself? Why are you making me do it?"

"You see what I mean now?" Aizawa asked, "It's not that he's poorly behaved. He's just got this whole disappearing act and likes to get in the vents. Oh, also, he floats."

The first two were fine, but that last one had Ide blinking a few times, looking between his best friend and the chief's son, as though asking for Light to confirm or deny this. Aizawa shrugged in such a way that made it unclear if he was kidding or not, as he opened the oven,

"Uh... yeah, you could probably fit a child in there."

"What the hell, Shuichi?" 

Aizawa looked up, then gestured to Light, "That just means we need to keep a better eye on him because the last thing we need is for him to disappear into the oven. Do you really want to be the one to call the chief saying we accidentally cooked his son?" He sighed, "Alright, I don't think Light can eat meatloaf."

"Maybe make him some scrambled eggs?" Ide offered, still hesitantly looking at Light, "You were kidding about the floating thing, right?"

...

"Give it an hour tops," Aizawa replied, picking up Light after moving the high chair into the kitchen. He locked eyes with Light, "Actually, is this dinner for us, you, or the supreme evil ones? Does Cthulhu actually eat eggs or meatloaf?"

Light reached for him, "Culu!"

"Yes, that's right." He smiled, "Is Cthulhu your friend?"

"Ry!"

"So... Cthulhu or Ry. Got it." He sighed, "Can you just do the floating thing real quick to show Ide?"

Light blinked, before floating out of the high chair and hovering around. Aizawa turned to Ide, who was staring, mouth agape at what he was seeing,

"So can you see now why I can already tell I'm gonna be like beating the shit out of Cthulhu with a duster or something?"

Ide continued to stare with wide eyes at Light for a couple more minutes, and by the time he snapped out of his shock, he had been moved to the table, and Aizawa had used the butterfly net to get Light back in his highchair.

After another maybe two minutes, Ide got up and walked to the liquor cabinet, "There's nothing like having a glass of wine at 10pm while babysitting a floating child." 

"Hideki! We are underage and babysitting the chief's son!" Ide slowly turned to Aizawa, his left eye twitching, before pointing at Light. Aizawa also looked at Light, who had escaped his high chair and... now a chair was floating? He walked over, pulling the armchair down, "Can we put the chair down, please?!" He turned to Ide, "See, Ry isn't really sucking out the souls of the nonbelievers, he's just being a dick, so there isn't really anything to worry about besides that ominous message in the closet that I really do need to clean up."

"Sorry, what?" Aizawa gestured for Ide to follow, turning to Light, "Stay. Play with your fox." He brought him over to the closet and gestured to the FEED ME in red paint.

"That—oh god, is that what the baby did?"

"Possibly?" He shrugged, "I don't really know." 

Ide took a step back, sucking in a breath, "Sure. Sure." He ran his hands through his hair, "Alright, I see what's happening here. We're Charles Xavier, and this is a baby X-Man, and we're gonna have to look after the baby X-Man, aren't we?"

That wasn't exactly inaccurate, and when it was put like that, it was something the average teenager wouldn't mind dealing with. Honestly, that might be why he was so calm with all of this. It all depended on how this was thought about.

Thinking of this as a kid with superpowers and something a little more than an imaginary friend was much better than saying he was possessed by the devil.

Something raced across his peripheral vision, and he turned, jumping in shock, seeing the meatloaf racing about an inch off the ground like a running animal, "Holy shit, the meatloaf's alive!"

Ide jumped up on the couch, grabbing Light, "Ah—Ah! Get it—Get it away from me! Did the chief not warn you about something like this?!" Aizawa continued to stand on the ground and watch the meatloaf scuttle about, digging into his bag and reading through the notebook,

"Use the holy water from the side room in the master bedroom? Um... okay them. Come on, let's go upstairs."

...

This could not be happening. What the hell was going on?! First, the baby is flying, and now the meatloaf seemed to have gained sentience! Even if they managed to make it stop moving, there was no way he was going to eat that thing. 

Well... meatloaf wasn't as bad as what they were going to be dealing with as officers, so he had to tough it out, even if this was extremely weird. He cradled Light, and Aizawa tossed him a bizarre thing,

"Give this to him. Maybe it'll calm him down."

 _What?! Huh?!_ "Is this some religious thing that will stop the baby from turning into Satan?" Aizawa only shrugged in response as though he did not care that their lives had suddenly turned into a shōnen manga. Deciding that there wasn't exactly a better option, Ide handed Light the Eldritch power adult toy or whatever this was. Light took it and started gumming at it, "Alright, are you okay? The devil not got you anymore?" He looked and saw the meatloaf was still flying around at high speeds, "This thing is useless."

"Yeah, but it's what the notebook says helps," Aizawa grabbed the butterfly net and smacked the meatloaf when it got too close to him, "Come on, let's get upstairs."

It took a moment to figure out which room was the master bedroom, and then find the side room off of said bedroom—never a good thing to have.

Aizawa opened the door and immediately started hysterically laughing, "Shuichi, what is it?"

...

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop laughing at what was inside the closet.

"This is the closet!" He walked inside past the large cross and grabbed one of the couple dozen squirt bottles with a cross on it, on the lower of the three shelves, "It's holy water in a spray bottle." He looked up at another shelf and saw too many salt shakers to count.

Ide had put Light on the bed and came in, "Cloves of garlic, wooden stakes... this is amazing." He took one of the squirt bottles and sucked in a breathe, "Please be there when I turn around, "He turned and saw Light was still sitting on the bed, blinking at the squirt bottles that both of his babysitters were now wielding like guns, "Good, you are." 

Just for the hell of it, Aizawa squirted Light's forehead to see what would happen. Nothing did, and Light didn't seem too bothered other than making a startled little cry, and then trying to use his sleeve to wipe the water away, only to fall back down on his back. That was what made him start to get fussy.

"Shuichi," Ide sighed, "Come on, what kind of parenting is this? No wonder this baby hates you." He picked Light up with his free arm and gently patted his back to soothe him, "There, there, Light, it's okay."

Light spit up all over Ide's shirt.

"He doesn't seem to like _you_ too much either," Aizawa retorted, and Ide narrowed his eyes, looking down at his shirt, sighing,

"I'll go find the laundry room and go shirtless for a while."

"So I take it I'm in charge of the meatloaf?"

"Are you kidding?" He scoffed, "You didn't call me here just to have me watch. You take him," he handed Light to Aizawa, "And I'll be right back."

Aizawa and Light had a staring contest for a moment. Then Aizawa decided to just put Light in his messenger bag to carry him around, leaving the bag open to the kid could still lookout, and he was now making himself stand and gripping onto the side.

Ide came back, holy water squirt bottles in hand, "Alright, so how is there so much holy water? How did they find all of this? Do you just put a cross on a container to make it?"

"Maybe just heat it up to boil the hell out of it." Aizawa offered, rolling his eyes and looking down at Light, "Ready, kid?" Light wasn't paying attention, too busy playing with his stuffed fox, which was in the bag.

Aizawa and Ide had their squirt bottles ready like guns, looking around the ground floor, "Alright, little meatloaf," he called, "I've got something for you, you beefy bastard, come here!"

Ide then ran into the other room, "Shuichi, the meatloaf!" they both ran in and started mercilessly spraying the meatloaf until it landed on the floor, safe and sound. Ide beamed, "We have exorcised the meatloaf!" he then paused, "Wow, that sounds weird if it was out of context."

"No," Aizawa corrected, "That sounds just as weird with context. So are we gonna cook this now?" Ide looked down at the exorcised meatloaf with a level of mistrust and borderline concern that Aizawa typically reserved for the idiots in their class.

"Should we eat it?"

Aizawa put a hand on his hip, "If you can't eat your food after it spent a few minutes floating around the floor and pulsating menacingly, you don't get any dinner." He looked around, "Alright, Ry, you like meatloaf?"

The television turned on, and Ide frowned, "I can't tell if that's a yes or a no." Aizawa again looked at the meatloaf, and just put some aluminum foil around it, put it in a pan, and then into the oven for an hour. 

"So..." he took Light out of the bag, "Tomorrow, we might need to go out and get some supplies."

"Like what? What can we possibly do against this baby X-Man?" 

"Don't worry," he looked at Light. This kid had no idea what was coming, "I have an idea."

The radio started scratching loudly and ominously, and Aizawa pointed at it,

"Don't you talk back to me!"

OoOoO

Soichiro got back with Sachiko, who was clearly worried as they got back.

"It's been two days, Sachiko, and I trust these boys," Soichiro assured, having gotten a call on the first night that Aizawa had called for Ide. This would be a good partner practice for them. "I'm sure Light is fine."

"It's not Light I'm worried about." She insisted, "Why don't you call that detective you were telling me about? The new one that appeared recently? What was the name...?"

"L?" Soichiro sighed, "Sachiko, nobody knows how to contact L." He held her hand and kissed it, "We'll figure this out, Sachiko. Don't worry."

They walked in, and Soichiro had to pause for a moment at what he was seeing.

For starters, a baby gate had been attached to the floor over the vent, and when they walked into the living room, they found both boys watching a movie. Light was playing with his fox and the talisman inside a reasonably large pet cage, which had been altered with some wood to turn into a side table for the couch. There was a baby monitor zip-tied to the bars of the cage, and a mattress had been placed inside. It was like a crib with a lid.

Aizawa looked up before jumping up off the couch, "Chief!" Both he and Ide bowed, and Soichiro was still looking at the new piece of furniture. Ide explained, 

"It was Aizawa's idea since Light kept opening the door and floating out every time we tried to put him to bed. Originally it was just a normal cage, but it kept getting picked up, but we found it didn't happen as often if it was a piece of furniture. He floats around inside occasionally, but he's contained."

Sachiko bent down and unlocked the cage, taking Light out, "Hey, baby," 

Soichiro nodded to the boys, "I assume he gave you some trouble."

"Other than the superpowers," Aizawa shrugged, "It wasn't that bad. He's well behaved." His brow furrowed, "Oh, and did you tell him my name? He was calling me Shuichi or trying to."

Soichiro turned towards Light. When had Light...? "No, I only referred to you as Aizawa." 

Everyone was quiet for a moment, and Soichiro looked back to the two teens who had managed to handle Light better in two days than he and Sachiko had in a week. 

"Can I hire you long term?" He asked, and both young men were clearly surprised and flustered, before getting it together.

"I can make time," Aizawa agreed, and Ide also nodded,

"I have time on weekends." 

"Thank you, boys," Soichiro looked back at Light, "You have no idea how much of lifesavers you are. Try to head home and get some sleep."

"Of course, Chief," both bowed and headed to leave, and Aizawa pointed at Light, who was waving to him, 

"Be good for your parents, right, kid?" Light giggled as his babysitters left, and Soichiro could already tell that maybe this wasn't going to be impossible. He had some new books to see what could be done, so hopefully, this whole nightmare would be over soon.

...

Ryuk pouted, very much annoyed that he hadn't succeeded this weekend in scaring Shuichi, but Hideki had shown fright a couple of times. And now it was harder to play with Light if he was in that cage. He needed to figure out how to open it, and then the issue would be resolved, but for now, that was frustrating. 

At least the two would be back, because they were interesting, and exploring the city while shopping had ben fun.

He looked at one of the open books for new ideas for having fun with what the humans believed to be accurate. It was honestly rather amusing seeing humans think some wood in the shape of a cross would do anything against a Shinigami, even if they didn't know that was what they were up against.

He sat down in front of Light, who was trying to reach through the bars of his cage to reach the talisman he had dropped. Ryuk handed it to him and watched the infant play. What was Light thinking with his movements and play?

Humans were so interesting.


	4. Chapter 4

It was a routine at this point, Soichiro supposed, to check and make sure Light was actually asleep. He had to get up at 5am to get ready for work, and it was a coin flip whether or not his son would be actually in his crib or not. It would keep him awake at night, and there were days he would bring Light into his room and just cradle the small boy until he fell asleep.

Sure enough, Light wasn't in his room at all in the morning, and Soichiro sighed as he walked downstairs. Panic coursed through his veins, but he knew where to look before waking Sachiko about the possibility Light had flown out the window, which he to Soichiro's knowledge had yet to do. Though, in truth, he wouldn't be shocked if he heard it was happening often and Light was just coming back safe and sound after a late night adventure he was too young to be having. Just the thought and the fact there wasn't much he could do if that turned out to be true made him extremely uncomfortable.

To Soichiro's relief, a now eight-month-old Light was sitting on the counter playing with his stuffed fox he had as of a couple months ago started calling Ajal, and an orange for some reason. Once again, all the apples had vanished from the fruit basket.

"Good morning, Apple Demon," Soichiro muttered as he made some coffee, still unsure if this was a separate entity or Light simply had superpowers. 

"Pomme," Light replied, pointing at the fruit basket, and all Soichiro could do was sigh.

"Light, when did you start learning French?" While this might be baby babble, it was around maybe two weeks after Apple Demon showed up that Light started figuring out words. And to top it all off, it was in both English and Japanese, which he would switch between. So for Light to now be learning French out of nowhere was not something Soichiro would be surprised by.

Light smiled innocently at him and stood up, stumbling a bit as he slipped on the feet of his onesie against the counter, and Soichiro managed to catch him before his face hit the hard surface. He held his baby close as Light giggled and grabbed at his face, and he felt his heart melt even more for the little boy in front of him.

Sachiko said that a demon was possessing Light, so this wasn't their son anymore. However, looking into his child's soft cinnamon eyes, Soichiro knew this infant in his arms truly was his son and not a supernatural being pretending. Even if Light was a bit of a troublemaker with these new powers, that didn't mean Soichiro loved his son any less.

Light grabbed his father's glasses off his face and tried to put them on, and they were so large compared to his head that Soichiro laughed, grabbing a bottle and some food out of the fridge to feed him. Unlike most babies, Light didn't seem to understand the concept of sleeping. He went to bed whenever he felt like it and woke up with or before the sun, but as long as he wasn't getting into trouble, there wasn't much issue. They had already tried babyproofing, and it hadn't worked, so the only thing saving them was the fact Light was smart enough to not get himself hurt by drinking cleaning products and such.

Sachiko probably wasn't going to be awake for a while, and she never enjoyed taking care of Light for long periods alone. Aizawa and Ide could babysit, but it was so early, and they had school in a couple hours. Soichiro looked down at Light, who was finishing off the milk,

"Light, I think we're going to try something new today."

"Why?" 

"Because your mother is sleeping," this was risky, and the last thing he needed was Light's secret being revealed. But from what Aizawa had told him, Light didn't start floating as often when out, and if he did, it was easy to hide by using the baby carrier.

He put Light in the car seat and buckled him up, making sure to grab enough things to keep Light busy.

He carried the car seat out to the car and put it in the back, sighing. Well, his coworkers had wanted to meet Light one day, so this worked decently enough.

The drive was uneventful, and he checked from the mirror occasionally, seeing Light cheerful in the back playing with his toy and blanket until eventually, he fell asleep. _What do you know?_ If he just needed to drive around to get Light to rest, he would do that gladly.

Sadly, it was only about five minutes between Light falling asleep and arriving at work. He took Light out of the car seat and held him close, thanking any god out there that the boy remained sleeping.

"Good morning, Superintendant," Kitamura greeted as Soichiro walked past to get to his office, "You brought your son?"

"He was up early, and Sachiko doesn't like taking care of him." He placed Light in a plush chair in his office, and the baby's limbs splayed out as though trying to take up as much space on the seat as possible with his small body. "He's well behaved. Just a little active." He looked up, "I hope you don't mind, sir. He'll hopefully be napping most of the day."

"Not at all, just don't let it happen too often." Kitamura looked down at Light, "How old is he now?"

"Almost nine months old." He cleared his throat, "I should probably get as much work done as I can before he wakes up and starts wanting to explore." 

He was left alone with Light and wondered how long the boy would remain sleeping. He noticed something wrap the blanket around Light and put his stuffed fox next to him.

Soichiro shook himself. He needed to get some work done, so he made some coffee quickly and checked his computer to make sure everything was for the moment. It was, and it was early enough that he sighed. He had been working here for nearly ten years, and being Superintendant was everything he could have asked for, right? He wasn't nearly as likely to get killed on the line of duty, so he would be there to raise his son.

And yet, he still felt that staying in his office organizing everyone, while the right thing to do, left him feeling somewhat useless.

Somewhat bored, he decided to look at a file from another case that was only recently assigned, so not much progress had been made yet. Soichiro held the folder in his hands, then turned around to see, to his horror, Light was very much awake and chugging his coffee.

"Light, no!" He snatched the coffee away in a panic. Coffee was bad for babies, right? How much had he had? Was he going to be sick?

Light didn't seem bothered by this or the new coffee stain on his onesie, reaching for the drink again, "Coffee, please."

"No, it's bad for you. Why do you even like this? You shouldn't like coffee until you're older." He put Light on the floor and put a laptop in front of him, "You can play with this or Ajal, I need to work, okay?" He sat down to look at this case file, and Light stood up, before floating over into his Dad's lap. Soichiro frantically closed the case file to not scar his son for life. 

"What's that?" Light pointed at the file, and Soichiro sighed,

"It's a case file. Someone did something bad, and we need to learn who did it." 

"Why?" Light blinked innocently at him, and then his expression changed slightly, and then he said something that made Soichiro's blood run cold, "Why not wait?" 

"Wait?" He asked cautiously, wondering what exactly was giving Light his abilities. From what he had researched, it was either some sort of demon, but it may be a Shinigami. Sachiko didn't humor the idea of a Death God too much, but it brought Soichiro pause, but his moment of being stunned gave Light enough time to grab a photo out of the case file and examine it.

...

Ryuk looked over Light's shoulder, fascinated by how fast this little human learned. All it took was talking to him in different languages and answering questions or even just talking to himself while Light was listening, and the child learned.

Why would humans kill each other? All humans die, there and gone so fast that while Ryuk doubted he would ever forget this young kindred spirit, he knew he would forget countless other humans he had seen in the last few months. Why go through the trouble of getting rid of someone? It's not like humans could prolong their own lives that way, and it actually seemed to shorten them if this "death penalty" was what Ryuk had gathered it was. For a human to kill another was interesting, sure, but also seemed like a foolish venture.

With other humans he had given the Death Note to, they said it was for gain. Ryuk supposed he could see the appeal using the notebook, but by the means that humans did typically, it just seemed like too much of a risk to be worth it.

The image Light was examining, and his father was trying to tear out of his hands. It was a picture of a dead body pressed against the wall with a knife in her stomach.

...

"Light, can I have that back, please?" Soichiro finally succeeded in getting it out of Light's hands, only for Light to want to back and pointing. "Light, you're too young to be seeing this."

Suddenly the photo flew out of his hands and back into Light's, and Light pointed at something behind this woman, showing his father, and Soichiro's eyes widened when he saw what looked like writing behind her, and the tip of her index finger had blood on it, as though...

"How did you..." when he took the photo this time, Light let go. It was hard to make out, but upon putting on his glasses, it seemed to be something along the lines of numbers or perhaps part of a name that had been written upside down.

An officer came in who Soichiro quickly identified as Raoki, "Good morning, Superintendant,"

"Good morning, Raoki. Have you made any progress on the robbery case?"

They talked for a couple moments before Soichiro noticed a distinct lack of his son in the room, and the door was open. He quickly wrapped things up and ran out the door, 

"Light? Light, where did you go?" He called, "Light!" He was a baby! Sure, he was clearly far more intelligent than he had ever expected, but he couldn't be getting that far on his own unless he was flying.

_Oh no, what if he's flying and someone sees him? This was a mistake, he's going to get taken away and experimented on—this is all my fault, I'm the worst father ever!_

_Calm down, it's early enough that not many people are here right now. Where would he go? He probably hasn't left the building. What would Light look for?_

Well, Light seemed to always enjoy being stimulated, whether by playing with toys and stacking blocks, messing with computer games, or sometimes watching television. Though he liked being alone unless someone was interesting to him, so maybe he had just been uncomfortable with the new person and left? Or he found the case entertaining and wanted to know more?

Alright, first thing's first was to check the kitchen since he might simply be hungry.

Thankfully, he did find Light in the kitchen, and it was nothing short of a miracle that there was nobody else in here because at the moment, Light was floating around the room, holding a donut, giggling as he ate it.

"Dada!" Light grinned, and Soichiro grabbed him since he was thankfully not hovering too high, 

"What are you doing?" He asked affectionately, trying to hide the fear that still found itself present.

"Expl... Explo..." Light gestured around the room, and Soichiro rolled his eyes a bit, assuming that Light was trying to say he was exploring, and then a thought occurred to him as he looked back on the last few months.

While supernatural happenings were common, it happened a lot of times when Light wanted something, often to be let out of his room and have attention, or he was hungry. While Light was intelligent, he didn't seem to fully understand keeping his abilities a secret yet.

Assuming this wasn't the work of a separate entity, what if Light bored caused his powers to act up? Meaning that to keep Light's secret, he needed to be constantly stimulated when he was awake until he was able to understand the importance of not revealing what he could do.

"Say, Light," he looked to the boy, "I want to try something with you, it's going to be fun, okay?"

"Okay, Dada."

Now all he had to do was keep Light out of trouble until it was time for his lunch break, and he could stop at the store to get what he was planning to use. That wasn't going to be too difficult, right?

After a moment, he didn't even bother trying to delude himself into thinking this would be easy.


	5. Chapter 5

During what Light's father had called "lunch break," he had taken Light out of the building and to a store, and Ryuk gleefully followed along. While Light was a fascinating little thing, Ryuk was quickly learning that his sire was determined to give his offspring whatever he needed, and his attempts to help were exciting to learn about. 

That said, Ryuk was still slightly bitter with Shuichi for that baby cage thing because every time he started to figure out the lock, his fingers slipped, and Light remained stuck in there. 

They were in a peculiar store full of strange things that seemed to be interesting for children, and Soichiro walked towards the back, to Ryuk's surprise, into what appeared to be for older children where he grabbed a box labeled "quilt blocks" and a little booklet, and a book called "Where's Waldo."

Getting back to where he worked after grabbing some food, he sat on the floor with Light, who looked at the blocks curiously. "See, Light, the goal with this is to use the blocks to follow the patterns in this booklet, okay? And with this," he held up the other book, "You have to find this person in each image," he gestured to the cover, and Light blinked,

"Okie!" Light took the blocks and examined them and the image. Soichiro smiled and ruffled Light's fluffy hair before sitting down for work.

Ryuk sat down on the opposite side of Light and looked at the image supposed to be made out of these weird blocks. How was he possibly supposed to do that?

However, Light seemed to have gotten an idea and would put blocks on top of the paper as though comparing them before putting them in the peculiar tray.

This went on for a little bit as the miniature human worked to solve the puzzle. Every now and then, Soichiro would turn and look perplexed for a split second and write something down in a notebook before getting back to work.

"There you are, Ryuk."

Ryuk looked up in surprise, seeing Zellogi standing there, staring between the two humans, "Zellogi, what are you doing here?"

"We heard that you found yourself a new pet, and I wanted to check it out." Zellogi replied, looking towards Soichiro, "Soichiro Yagami? Interesting pick."

Ryuk laughed, and it was the fact there was zero reaction from the Superintendant that made Zellogi realize what was so different about this instance of the Death Note ending up in a human's hands as he looked towards Light,

"That tiny thing is the Death Note's owner?"

"Yup!" Ryuk gestured to Light, who was no longer playing with blocks and was now staring up at Ryuk curiously,

"Ryuk?" That was what made Soichiro turn and bend down to figure out what that meant, but Light was still fixated on Ryuk,

"Well," Ryuk corrected, "He's 267 days old, so he's not the official owner yet, but I found out that all that really means is he doesn't have to write names yet, and I can hold onto it."

Zellogi stared at Light, "What's so special about him?"

"He isn't scared of me," Ryuk smiled a bit, seeing Light giggling now that he and his Dad were working together on part of the block puzzle, which was clearly Soichiro's attempt to distract him from the supernatural. "And he's smart, so he's not boring." 

There was silence between the two Shinigami for a moment as Zellogi looked down at Light, before scoffing, "Well, it was nice knowing you, Ryuk."

"And what do you mean by that?"

Zellogi only laughed in response, "Have fun, Ryuk," and then he took off, leaving Ryuk confused and somewhat annoyed, part of him wanting to chase after Zellogi and get an answer. He may be young compared to other Shinigami, but he wasn't some reckless child like the others thought he was. He knew the rules, and there wasn't one against having a baby as the human he was in charge of. It hadn't been done, but that didn't mean it was illegal.

Maybe Zellogi just meant that since Light had a long lifespan, that Ryuk wasn't going to be around in the Shinigami Realm for a while.

Light and his Dad finished the first puzzle, and Light was laughing and clapping with glee. Ryuk knew that he wasn't going back to that barren wasteland any time soon.

OoOoO

Soichiro got home that night, and Sachiko was making dinner. She looked up at him, "I see you had him."

"Yes," he set the bag down and held Light, who was fast asleep with most of his tiny body fitting on his father's shoulder. Soichiro felt his heart melt a bit, hearing the small noises from the slumbering child. "I'm going to put Light to bed, and I'll tell you what I learned today."

"Sure," she didn't seem to be paying attention, and Soichiro sighed at her disregard for their child as grabbed a bottle and climbed the stairs, still holding Light and singing softly, as he noticed the movement was stirring Light awake again. Light didn't often drink from bottles anymore, but he did from time to time, usually when sleepy.

_"My Dearly Beloved_

_Be strong, I shall be there._

_Always here beside you_

_So, keep your head held high._

_The shadows of this world_

_Will try to steal you away into their arms._

_But you belong in mine."_

Light finished the bottle and yawned as he fell asleep again, having been working hard today, which was something still shocking to Soichiro. Normally babies had an attention span of roughly fifteen minutes at this age, but Light had been working for closer to an hour before getting sidetracked by "Ryuk." 

Aizawa had a theory that Ryuk, or Apple Demon, was completely separate from Light and was just hanging around for an unknown reason. After everything that had been happening, either Light was like Matilda in that recently published English book of the same name, having telekinesis due to unused mental capacity. Or Ryuk was a different being hanging around. Honestly, Soichiro had no idea which of the two was better, but he had noticed today that Light had noticed Ryuk's existence while playing with challenging blocks, but he hadn't been floating around. 

Was Ryuk an imaginary friend, and Light just had strange abilities, needing mental stimulation? Or was Ryuk real and to blame for the abnormal happenings?

Nevertheless, he found himself speaking to seemingly an empty room as he laid Light down and watched him try to take up as much space as possible in the crib. "Take care of him, Ryuk," and then he left, walking downstairs to have some time with his wife before Light woke up and decided to play at an hour no human being should be awake.

Sachiko had just finished serving dinner, "Did he cause any trouble."

"No," he sat down, "I actually think he just needs stimulation. He was already noticing things in cases that I hadn't, and he can recognize patterns fast. Maybe we should get him tested with Mensa International when he's older?"

"You seriously think all of this is him just being smart?" Sachiko snapped, "Did you just say you showed him a case file?"

"Not really, he took it from me."

"That just proves it! He's not normal, Soichiro!"

Soichiro glared at her for a moment before softening, knowing she was just confused and freaked out. He was too, and they just expressed it differently, "And what can we do about it besides give him a hand to hold? You want to get rid of it, but what if we can't, and this is just part of who he is? He's our son, Sachiko, we have to be there for him and make sure his secret stays under wraps."

Sachiko picked at her food, "I suppose you're right. Why can't he just go back to normal?"

"Nothing is that simple," he finished and washed his dish, "All we can do is make things up as we go and hope for the best." 


	6. Chapter 6

Tonight was a very important night for Light—April 19th, 1991—as he was finally 780 days old. Ryuk heard the grandfather clock downstairs chimed midnight, and he looked down at the sleeping toddler in his bed, which was built for adults, dwarfing his already tiny form. Not that Ryuk minded this, because there was room for him to lay down too, and Light's books, which he left at the end of the bed, were not disturbed.

Light was trying his best to curl himself into a ball and had formed a nest around himself like a bird, except instead of sticks, it was blankets. So much space, and yet he was content with so little of it. Ryuk gently shook Light awake,

"Hey, Light, wake up," he nudged the child, who tried to push him away a bit before slowly opening cinnamon eyes and sitting up, doing a drowsy kitten impression as he looked to Ryuk, his hair a mess and he rubbed his eyes, yawning.

"What is it?"

"Today's an important day for you." He pulled out the notebook he had been holding onto for Light for nearly two years now, and Light took it, examining the Death Note before moving to turn on the lamp and blinking a few times, "I've been holding onto this for you, and now that you're 780 days old, you can use it."

"Why 780?" Light asked as he read the rules aloud, "The human whose name is written in this note shall die. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing their name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected." He looked up to Ryuk, "Why kill when you can wait?"

Ryuk laughed, having known Light would have questions, "I have no idea why it's 780 days—I've always thought it was random. But the notebook can be used for many reasons, but it's your choice if you write in it more than once every 490 days."

"Why?"

"Because you need to write every 490 days—another probably random number—to maintain ownership so I can stay with you."

...

"Oh." Light stared at the notebook, thinking about what Ryuk had given him. Well, Ryuk had been taking care of him for so long, this must be a good thing, right?

Killing people. Dad fought against people who did that, those who didn't wait for the ones they disliked to run out of lifespan. Dad would be mad if he found out Light did that.

What he did know is he had to write at least one name every 490 days. He didn't want Ryuk to go. He could think about what to use this for later.

"Bundle up, I'll take you to find a name to write," Ryuk said, and Light looked down at the notebook. The concept of death was strange, so he knew he probably didn't understand the full weight of being okay with this. He knew that, so he focused on wanting Ryuk to stay, getting out of bed, and running over to the closet, using some of his books as a stool to reach the handle and grabbed some boots, a jacket, and a beanie.

Ryuk picked him up, and Light clung to him tight while also holding the notebook, "Where are we going?"

"The city," Ryuk took off from the balcony, and Light shivered as they flew higher into the air, the gentle breeze proving extra cold in the middle of the night. He shivered and looked down at the city below and how beautiful it was. He giggled, and soon as Ryuk sat him down on a building, he ran to the edge and looked at all the things his parents didn't let him see.

Then he looked at one of the large screens and saw names and faces being shown, of people condemned who had brutally harmed others. Light sat on the ledge, and Ryuk sat next to him,

"I don't understand why humans broadcast people like that. It's like they're trying to make those like you and me kill them," Ryuk looked down at Light, who observed some crime scene photos being broadcast.

He held the pen and looked at the person. This was a bad person, someone Dad got rid of, so this wasn't wrong. This was okay. He wrote the name down quickly and noticed Ryuk was nowhere to be found.

"Ryuk?" He looked around, hugging himself anxiously, "Hello?"

He felt a hand on his shoulder, "Hey," Light yelped, then smiled when he saw Ryuk was here, a lollipop in his hand, which he gave to Light, "I got myself an apple. Figured you'd want something."

Light took the candy and started sucking on it, looking up at Ryuk, "Am I doing something bad?"

Ryuk shrugged, "That's for you to decide. I gave you that notebook to do whatever you want with. Oh, and you can't let anyone touch it, or they can see me."

Light looked down at the notebook, enjoying his candy as he thought. Ryuk nudged him a bit,

"Whatcha thinking?"

"Dad would say this is bad," Light mused, "But if all humans die like you've said, why do people care? You could wait, and using this just makes it faster. But does that mean Dad doesn't have to go after 'bad people'? It does mean that there isn't harm in me using it sometimes."

He looked up and blinked when Ryuk started cackling, "You sound kind of like a Shinigami, kid." 

Light continued to think quietly and finish his candy. He couldn't ask Dad about this, because that would upset him. Maybe he could ask? He could ask about why people saw killing each other as bad and not just impatient. He certainly couldn't ask his mother about any of this.

 _"What is wrong with that child?"_ He remembered hearing his mother say many times even when he was just playing with his blocks. Did she not love him?

Maybe he could ask Aizawa or Ide? They didn't think he was creepy and were okay with answering his questions. But they didn't come over as much anymore since they worked with his Dad.

That meant he was alone with this secret, right? That was okay because Dad was aware of Ryuk at least on some level and seemed fine with him. And he had Ryuk.

Light shivered from the cold and nuzzled up closer to Ryuk, laughing when Ryuk wrapped a wing around him, and the feathers tickled him.

Ryuk looked down at him, "Wanna head home?"

"Yeah," Light yawned, "I'm sleepy."

Ryuk picked him up, cradling him as though he was still a baby and Light looked down at the world, which seemed so small from up here.

When they got home, Light looked around. First thing's first, he needed a place to hide the notebook, so nobody touched it. His first thought was his toy trunk, but anybody could look in there. The bookshelf wouldn't work because he would read with Dad on the nights he was home.

 _Oh! Is Dad home tonight?_ Light decided to lift his mattress a bit and stuff the notebook under there, running to his parents' bedroom and checking, seeing Dad wasn't in bed. So he looked downstairs, seeing Dad's shoes were at the door.

He looked around before he heard something from the bathroom, and he stood on his tiptoes to open the door, glad to not find it locked.

He saw his Dad sitting on the bathroom floor, hyperventilating and tearing at his hair, trying to stifle sobs.

"Dad?"

Dad jerked up but didn't seem able to calm himself. If anything, his breathing got even faster. Light ran over,

"Dad, what's wrong?" He hugged Dad's neck, feeling Dad wrapping his arms around him and holding on tight. "It's okay, Dad," he tried, "Shhh,"

...

Ryuk watched what was happening, taking notes in his human observation journal. Already Light with the Death Note was fascinating, and he seemed to have developed something akin to a Shinigami's way of thinking regarding the morality of killing humans. Maybe that would change as he got older, but it was interesting to see the young child's thoughts on the matter now.

And now, it seemed, Light was seeing another of his sire's... panic attacks, that was what they were called, right? He had many of those, typically with only Ryuk around watching and unsure of what was happening. Only a handful of times had Light seen them, but he was smart enough to know they were not uncommon.

Light held onto his father and looked up at Ryuk, asking with his eyes for a little assistance. Ryuk shrugged and walked into the kitchen, getting a glass of water and holding onto it until Light needed it.

...

Light stayed in that long hug for a long time, helping Dad calm his breathing. _Why does Dad get so upset like this? Did I do something wrong?_ He wondered if he could use the notebook to help Dad, so he wasn't so stressed, but decided that was for another time.

He waited patiently as Dad slowly managed to control his breathing until eventually, he let go, and Light took the glass of water from Ryuk and gave it to him.

Dad wiped his eyes and took the offered water, "Thank you, Light. What are you doing up?"

"I was thinking," Light answered, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing..." Dad tried, but Light cocked his head, making it clear he saw right through that, "I'm just stressed—nothing for you to worry about," he took a sip of the water, "What were you thinking about? And why are you in your jacket?"

"I was cold," Light omitted expertly, "And I was just thinking about things."

Dad smiled a bit, standing up and carrying him, "Come on, let's get you back to bed." He was still shaking and trying to control his breathing, and Light hugged him again,

"But I'm not tired. Are you going to bed?"

"Not yet, Light. I can't sleep yet."

"Oh." They were now in Light's room, and he was helped out of his jacket and boots and tucked back into bed. "Can we read, Dad? I don't like that you're sad."

Dad softened and grabbed a book, "You know, I think spending some time with you is what I need tonight," he opened the book they were reading, to the chapter they last left off on, "I love you, Light."

Light clung to him, and saw Ryuk sitting on the bed too and ready to listen to the story, "I love you too, Dad."


	7. Chapter 7

Aizawa was let in by Soichiro, and with him was Ide. The Chief smiled tiredly, shaking his hand,

"Thank you for coming over. I know it's a lot to ask, given you have a job now."

"It's no problem," Aizawa assured, "Light's a good kid, and I know it's better fewer people know his secret." He noticed Light was playing in the main room, building something, so busy with what he was doing that he hadn't noticed the door.

Ide crossed his arms, "We're happy to help take care of Light for the weekend, but what's going on?" Soichiro ran his hands through his already messy hair, which implied he had been doing this a lot.

"Sachiko's been sick for the last couple weeks, so I'm taking her to the doctor tomorrow, but tonight at a hotel. We'll be home tomorrow evening after we discuss what we learn."

"Ah shit, she's pregnant, right?" Aizawa muttered, and Soichiro shrugged a bit,

"I don't know." He looked towards Light, "There's money on the counter for if you want to take him out for food or get him new parts for whatever he's building." He raised his voice a bit to get Light's attention, "Light, Aizawa and Ide are here."

Light looked up, brightening and running over, hugging Aizawa's legs and then Ide, bouncing up and down.

"Hi!" Ide picked Light up,

"Hey kid, what have you been up to?"

"I'm building a computer," Light jumped down and ran over to the main room, pointing to his creation,

Aizawa observed the monitor Light was working on, which seemed to be about halfway done, and Sachiko came down the stairs and pointed to Light,

"Be good, Light, and no setting things on fire."

"Okie!" Light waved, "Bye, Mother!" She left without a word, and Aizawa looked down at the basket he had brought, seeing Apple Demon had eaten all the apples within while he hadn't been looking.

"You know, Apple Demon, those were for the whole weekend." He waved goodbye to the Chief, who looked exhausted as though this weekend would be anything but relaxing.

Light sat on the floor, before looking up at Aizawa, "Is Mother gonna die?" Aizawa was almost alarmed by how detached this toddler sounded when he asked that question, but he really should stop being surprised. Light had always had an abnormal apathy at the idea of death. And yet he was also compassionate enough to care for others.

Of course, the number of people Light knew was not many since he spent most of his life hidden inside due to his abilities or the demon latched onto him. Perhaps he only showed care for those he gave a damn about, and the fact he had a strained relationship with Sachiko was no secret.

He found himself hesitantly asking, "Do you want your mother to die?"

"No," Light replied cheerfully, "It wouldn't change anything for me, but Dad thinks it would, and he's already too busy. I don't care one way or the other as long as I know." He blinked, "You didn't answer my question. Is it because you don't know?"

Deciding he didn't want to inquire as to why Light didn't care, he yawned, "I've got no idea, so before we do anything else, I need coffee. Your Dad has cold brew, right? The last thing I need is Apple Demon dumping hot coffee on me."

"Um..." Light got up, "Dad made the mistake of showing me where he keeps the cakes, and then he made the bigger mistake of showing me where he keeps the extra cakes, and then he somehow made a bigger mistake by showing me where he keeps the brownies." He walked over to the pantry and floated up to the top shelf, getting down the treats and the cold brew coffee maker, handing it down.

Ide pulled out the cups from the cabinet, "I'll make the coffee." Light beamed as he floated to the counter,

"Can I have coffee?"

"You're two," Aizawa pointed out absently, and Light crossed his arms,

"Almost three."

Aizawa rolled his eyes and ruffled Light's hair, turning and seeing Ide putting ice cream in the cup, "Ide...?"

"What? It's how the pros do it. Like a bartender," he poured the brew from the machine into a cup, playfully moving the cup up and down in a repeated motion, making Light giggle, "Hey, welcome to the coffee shop, what can I get for you?" He said in imitation as Aizawa leaned against the counter, grinning a bit, "Yeah, you know we've got spirits in here, right?" He looked down at his creation, "Look, it might not taste good, but it will look great. Like ice cream floating on top of it, with a caramel drizzle."

"At this point," Aizawa shook his head a little in exasperation, "Just pour it in the cup, and I'll drink it, thanks." Ide scoffed a bit, clearly having fun with this,

"You're no fun. Just turn around for a second, and I'll present it to you."

"I wanna help!" Light went back over to the counter, laughing and having a good time. Then he noticed something, picking it up and seeing it was a drawing, unfinished for the most part, but it was of a creature Aizawa had never seen before. He wondered if this was what Light saw when referring to Apple Demon, or Ryuk or whatever this was. He looked back towards Light, seeing the child was eating one of the cakes and humming that same melody he often did, that nobody knew the origin of, and Light refused to tell. Whether he had been taught or came up with it himself, Aizawa didn't know.

Light wasn't a creepy kid, really, even if the circumstances of his life were abnormal. He was a bright kid who wanted to meet people and play, but every now and then, it was _really_ clear that he wasn't a normal kid. No child should be able to ask if their mother is going to die with complete apathy. 

If he didn't know what death was like the average toddler, that would be okay, but Light knew what it was, and he had gotten his hands on crime scene photos, and no matter what he was looking at, he only ever seemed mildly disturbed at worst.

"Aizawa!" Light waved, "We're done," he and Ide showed their finished product, which was more ice cream and coffee at this point, but as he tried it, it was actually good.

Light was bouncing a bit and jumped down from the counter, running back over to his little machine, using his tools—and it was an actual toolkit to build his toys with—to finish his project, humming.

This was how most nights babysitting Light went. He would sit and read, build something, or play with Apple Demon. While that happened, Aizawa and Ide would either work on the cases they were part of or just watch a movie. It all depended on the nature of the investigation. While Light had seen crime scene photos before, a crossfire death and a downright planned murder with a mutilated body were two very different things.

Seeing as they were investigating what looked to be a serial killer, the choice was to turn on live TV and see what was on. He didn't recognize the movie, but he wasn't overly interested in that. He was more curious watching Light, who was managing to build a motherboard and was putting in a new device. He got up from the couch and sat down next to Light, "What's that?"

"The processor," he pointed to a book sitting out, and upon further investigation, it was teaching about computers, and he examined the fans. 

"What are you building this for?"

"For Dad," Light explained, "I said it's for me, but I want to give it to him. He gets upset when he's at work too long, but says he needs to do things, so why not work at home?"

"Well, Light," Ide looked down too, "Your Dad works hard and needs to help organize other officers like Aizawa and me."

"He likes to help cases too," Light pointed out, muttering to himself about the memory card, and seeing it was sitting on his stuffed fox, where he took it, "Thanks, Ajal," he continued to hum softly. Aizawa was content to watch him, knowing that it was pointless to try tucking Light in for bed in an hour; he would fall asleep when he was tired.

After a little while of Light building the computer, Light got up and begun to clean up his work area, walking over to the pantry to get himself some leftover rice.

Light looked up from the microwave, "Can we go out for breakfast tomorrow?"

"Sure," Ide replied, "Where do you want to go?" Light shrugged,

"Anywhere. Mother doesn't let me go out often." He looked to where the news had turned on about a hostage situation. Aizawa tensed, and while he knew there were officers on duty who would be handling the situation, it was still unsettling that as an officer, he was seeing this happening and couldn't do anything.

...

Light saw the hostage situation in a bank and went upstairs, "I'm gonna get my blanket." He went upstairs, having memorized the name and face, and he pulled out the Death Note, deciding to write the name down and specifying the death was from being stabbed—a reasonable cause of death.

Over the last couple of months of having the Death Note, Light had decided what he would do about it. Every 490 days was required, but the only times he would kill before that number—thus resetting the number—would be if there was something he could do to save people like his Dad did every day.

Everyone would die eventually, but murderers, who only treated people like chess pieces, weren't good. It was the principal of the matter. If Light killed someone to save other people, that could be counted as defense, and from what his Dad had told him when he asked, that wouldn't get you punished. However, killing people for no reason or for your personal gain, like threatening to shoot a bunch of people if you don't get money, was not okay, and Light was right for doing something about it.

Of course, he couldn't do this a lot, or somebody was bound to catch on, so he would be careful and never use heart attacks.

Ryuk looked down at Light, "Are you protecting those people?" Light nodded,

"Mhm!" he looked up to Ryuk, who played a more maternal role in his life than his human Mother did, "It's easy this way. If they're meant to die now, they still will, but this would give them a chance, right?"

Ryuk laughed, "Yeah, you're right, kid."

As Light stuffed the Death Note under his mattress and grabbed his blanket, he noticed a family picture on his bookshelf, and he wondered why Dad was taking Mother to the doctor. She had been throwing up a lot, so she must be sick. He had asked Ryuk if Mother was dying, but Ryuk replied that he couldn't say since it was against the rules.

He decided not to think about it and went back downstairs to see if Aizawa and Ide knew about that bad man dying. Judging by their shocked expressions, they had heard about it.

"What did I miss?" He asked, sitting back down with his rice, "Did the police capture that guy?"

"Yeah," Aizawa replied, and while he had a good poker face, it was still clearly a lie. But Light decided that was fine, and he went back to work.

OoOoO

Soichiro nervously opened the door to his home, trying to ease his own shaking as he looked to his wife, who had a hand still over her stomach, both of them shocked. They had been so careful, and he had been so busy and stressed that neither had thought this was possible.

How were they going to tell Light? What would Light think about this? And could they keep Light's abilities a secret if there was a new baby around who wouldn't understand why it was important that nobody knew?

He walked in the main room and saw Light was almost done with the computer he was building for himself. As long as Light was stimulated and they could afford it, he would get Light whatever he wanted to keep himself from being bored. 

Aizawa looked up, waving, "Hey, Chief!" he and Ide came over, "Light was well behaved while you were gone." 

"I'm glad," Soichiro muttered, and Ide cocked his head slightly,

"So, what's going on?"

Deciding to get it over with, Soichiro bent down to Light, who was hugging his legs and chanting, "Dad! Dad! Dad!" with glee. 

"Hey, Light," he brought Light over to the couch as Sachiko shut the front door, "There's something Mom and I have to tell you." he sighed, "Your Mom's pregnant. In six or seven months, you're going to have a little brother or sister."

Light blinked before a bright smile found its way onto his face, giving Soichiro relief since he knew not all children were happy about this kind of thing. 

Then Light's expression changed to curiosity, "Why can't we have the baby now? I want to meet my sister." Soichiro chuckled,

"It could be a boy, Light."

"No, thank you," Light replied, "Just a sister, please. Why can't my sister come now?"

"Because she needs to grow," Sachiko explained, "She's growing in my belly and will come out when she's ready."

"Did you eat her?" Light asked, "How did she get there?

_Oh... damn._

Aizawa laughed and clapped Soichiro on the shoulder, "Well, this is where I say goodbye." He and Ide left, and Soichiro stood in a panic,

"Don't abandon me now!"

"Sorry, Chief!" Ide joined, "I'm not getting paid enough to help with that talk. Good night, and good luck." As much as he wanted to be annoyed, he also wanted to join them in the running for the hills at the thought of explaining where babies come from to his far-too-intelligent toddler who wouldn't put up with the stork lie.

Soichiro realized at that moment that his mother had been right all along. Clever children might sound fun, but it would really come back to bite you.

Sachiko sighed, "I'm going to go upstairs." He already felt panic rising at the idea of having to explain this to Light alone, knowing that if he chickened out and didn't, Light would go find out somewhere else and who knew what horrors he could find in that can of worms.

He sucked in a breath, "Alright, Light, this is going to sound really uncomfortable. But I'll explain it to you."

After about ten minutes of explaining, he finally finished, and Light had a look of disgust on his face, "Ew. I don't like that."

"Just know, Light, if you have questions when you're older, you can come to me, and I won't judge you."

"I don't think that's needed, that stuff sounds gross!"

"Well, that's how babies are made," he sighed, "I was really hoping I wouldn't have to tell you until you were nine or ten."

"I wish I hadn't asked." He then looked up with a sad expression, "Dad?"

"Yes, Light?"

"Is Mother having another baby because she doesn't love me?" He looked at his feet and hugged Ajal, "I know you love me, and a sister sounds fun, but Mother always asks what's wrong with me."

He pulled Light into a hug without hesitation or thought, "Light, your mother and I both love you so much. She just doesn't know how to interact with you. We're not having a baby to replace you."

"But what if Mother forgets about me and gives all her love to the baby?"

He wasn't sure what disturbed him more. The fact that Light was afraid his mother would forget about him, or the dreadful realization that Light might be correct in his fears about not getting the maternal love he needed. Light shouldn't have to rely on a demon that may or may not exist to get maternal affection.

"I won't let her, okay?" He vowed, "And even if she were to, I'll give you all the love you could want."

"Make sure to save some for the baby too," Light reminded him, earning a small chuckle, even though he knew deep down that this unplanned pregnancy was going to be the source of many sleepless nights. He would have to be careful to hide a panic attack if it happened since Light had caught him one too many times.

"Of course, I will." He stayed in that hug for a little while, before smiling, "Do you want to show me how the computer's going?"

His upset seemingly forgotten, Light bounced up, "Yeah!" He ran over to where he was getting the computer set up at the table and started showing and explaining progress that Soichiro only somewhat understood. However, he was more than happy to listen as his son gleefully went on about his project.

...

So a new addition to the Yagami family was on the way?

It had been fascinating to learn the nature of human procreation and how humans were created. Did that mean Light might one day have his own spawn?

Regardless, this meant there were going to be big changes in the household. Would Light share his secret with his new sibling? Part of Ryuk wondered if he should mess with this new baby too just to piss off Sachiko. Then he remembered there was a high chance the new kid would be terrified if it saw him or if it was being picked up for no reason.

Then again, if Sachiko really did choose to focus on the new kid and not Light, it might be worth it.

Ryuk instantly had to stop that line of thinking, wondering if this was what Zellogi had been referring to in that vague conversation two years ago. Could he get _that_ involved with humans who hadn't touched the notebook? Messing with objects around the house was one thing, but to physically pick up a child who did not own and had not touched the Death Note...

Well, there wasn't a rule against it, technically, so there was no reason not to. Besides, he was supposed to be a bystander for the most part and just watch what Light did. Even if he had been taking more of a parental role than he had ever expected, given the lack of affection Light got from his mother.

He decided that while killing Sachiko would be a step too far, messing with her even more than usual was absolutely in the cards if she tried to forget about Light.

He watched Light explaining computers to his Dad, who was unaware the gift was for him. Ryuk sometimes while Light slept, peeked into neighbor houses to see what other human children did, and none of them were like Light. They kicked and screamed over the tiniest thing and all sorts of actions that made no sense to the point he knew this wasn't just the fact Light had a Shinigami in his life.

Alright, so maybe his test about what a human would do if they grew up with the Death Note had been messed up since he picked a human who was so much like him, held no fear, and was intelligent far beyond his peers. 

Not that he was complaining at all, he immensely enjoyed seeing Light grow up and learn, so he was perfectly happy to stay with the kid for his whole life.


	8. Chapter 8

Not for the first time in his young life and certainly not the last, Light found himself bored. It didn't happen often, but when it did, it left Light feeling desolate.

He splayed out on his bed, staring at the ceiling and listening to all the women talking downstairs. Mother told him that this was time for the Moms, and he had to take a nap. But he had just woken up from his nap when she told him to take one since he was used to the routine. Now he was awake and had read every book in his room except for the one he read with Dad at night.

What were the Moms doing downstairs? Mother had called it a "baby shower," and frankly, seeing as the baby was in her stomach, that seemed a little weird. He didn't understand how that worked, especially because it sounded like a party.

Ryuk looked down at Light, "Whatcha doing?"

"Thinking." He sat up, crossing his arms, "I want to do something helpful, but I can't be loud." He brightened as an idea came to him, running to the closet and putting on his jacket and shoes, sneaking into his parents' room away from the staircase and grabbed the library card, heading back to his room and opening the balcony door, "Can you help me down?" Ryuk helped him down, and Light grinned, "To the library!"

He had memorized the route there when his Dad took him since it was, oddly enough, only a block from the book store where he had been taken for his 3rd birthday four weeks ago.

The walk versus the drive was pretty long, and he found himself tired quickly and was glad very few people paid any mind to the child walking alone in the city.

At some point, Ryuk started carrying him subtly, close enough to the ground to give the illusion of walking.

Once he made it to the library, he walked up to the librarian, "Excuse me, where can I find books on taking care of babies?"

The librarian looked down at him, "The third aisle down. Do you need help finding the children's books?"

"No, thank you, I'm sure I can manage," he grinned, wandering into the library to find what he was looking for, needing stand on a stool to reach the books, browsing until he found one. It was in English, but he was fluent in many languages, thanks to having Ryuk around. Dad even said he was considering seeing if Light could test out of foreign language classes when he was older.

 _"The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care_ , by Benjamin Spock." He opened the book and read the first few sentences to see if this was what he was looking for, "Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do. Your family is growing and changing. You want to be the best parent you can be, but it's not always clear what's best." He shut the book, "Perfect!"

He thought about it, realizing that he probably didn't need to be home for a few hours. Mother wouldn't miss him, and Dad probably wouldn't be home until late. Besides, if he waited until the sun went down, Ryuk could fly him home.

He decided to sit at one of the tables where there was just another boy and read the book to learn what he had to do. It wasn't like Mother knew how to take care of a child, so if Dad was busy, it was up to Light to take care of his new sister—Mother had looked at him weird again when they learned from the doctor that Light had been right about the baby being a girl, and Light meanwhile was happy to be correct.

He noticed the boy near him was upset and taking notes on the book he was reading. He was a skinny young boy, probably around nine or ten, with a mop of messy black hair and pale brown eyes, revealed only for moments at a time. Light leaned forward, "Whatcha learning?"

The boy looked up, puzzled to see a kid so young asking that question, "Oh, just some informal coordinates. I have to get my grade in math up."

"Oh! Can I see it?" He extended his hand, "I'm Light! Light Yagami!" 

"Touta," the boy replied, "Touta Matsuda." Light moved his chair over and looked at the book,

"I saw these in a book," he pointed to the graph, "The line going from side to side is the x-axis, and the one going up and down is the y-axis."

"I know that," Matsuda smiled a bit, "But I keep forgetting how to use that to plot the right points. They're really easy to mix up." He looked to Light, "How old are you?"

"Three. Why?"

Matsuda laughed a bit, "Then how do you know these kinds of things?"

"I get bored, and Dad gets me books. Ry—" he hesitated, "Mom teaches me to read when he's busy." Ryuk laughed,

"I'm your Mom now?" Well... Ryuk was more of his Mom than Mother was, so Light decided he liked that.

"Huh," Matsuda seemed impressed, "I have never met a three-year-old who knew how to do this because he was bored." He looked over to the book Light was reading, "Whatcha reading?"

"It's a book on taking care of babies. My sister is going to be born soon, and I want to help."

"Oh," Matsuda frowned a bit, "So do you want to be study-buddies? I have a sister too, so I can give you some tips."

"Yay!" 

They talked and worked for hours, and Matsuda managed to get the hang of plotting the points, and Light learned a lot in the book as he went to check it out, hearing the library was closing soon.

"Thanks for the help, Light," Matsuda said as they were walking out, and then he paused, "Wait, where are your parents?"

"Um... Dad's at work and Mother probably doesn't even know I left. Or if she did, she doesn't care."

"But—But you've been at the library with me for hours!"

"Mother was throwing a baby shower. I walked here."

"Oh, Jesus Christ," Matsuda was quiet for a moment as though thinking of what to do, before suddenly picking Light up in a piggyback ride, "It's dark. I'm not letting you walk on your own. You might be smart, but you could still get kidnapped or hit by a car. What's closer? Your Dad's work, or your house."

"Dad's work. He's the Superintendant of the NPA."

"Hold on—your Dad is Soichiro Yagami?! I've heard about him!"

Light giggled, clinging to Matsuda's neck with one arm and holding his book with the other, "Yeah. I walk there all the time, so I'll be let in."

"Shouldn't your Dad be more concerned that you walk there?"

"He is, and he always tells me it's dangerous. But it's okay. I'll be safe." He could always fly, and if it really came down to it, Ryuk would protect him, right? Even if, for some reason, Ryuk couldn't, he kept a piece of the Death Note hidden at his hip, held by the elastic at the top of his underwear. He could take care of himself.

"Just try to be more careful, Light." Matsuda started walking, "I walk past the NPA building on my way to the apartment."

As Matsuda walked, he bounced Light a bit to readjust his grip. Light held on tight, still keeping a firm hold on his book. "Touta, what's school like? Mother worries I'm not going to fit in. Do you think kids will like me?"

"Of course they will. Your Mom probably just means that you're different because you're really smart, but that isn't a bad thing."

"I don't care what humans think," Ryuk mused, "Why do humans care so much about 'social norm' or whatever? You all breathe the same air, and you all die. It's not like how you behave changes the fact it'll happen eventually."

"Yeah," Light said in response to both Matsuda and Ryuk, "But Mother's friends say that I should have friends my age. Right now, my friends are my babysitters, Mom, Dad, my toys, and characters in books. I'm hoping my sister will be my friend too."

"I've always been a bit of an idiot," Matsuda joked, "So I don't know exactly what you're going through, being smarter than everyone, though I get why you wouldn't connect with others your age. But I guess I'm closer to your age, and I'm your friend." Light beamed,

"Really?"

"Yeah, you're a fun kid."

When they got to the front door of the NPA building, Light waved, and while there were some questioning looks at Matsuda, nobody paid much heed, because the only time someone came with Light into the NPA building was to deliver him to the Superintendant. Though usually, this person was Aizawa or Ide.

Light jumped down from Matsuda's back and took his hand, leading him along, "Come on, come on, come on!" He opened the door to his Dad's office, "Hi, Dad! I made a friend!"

Dad looked up from his work, getting up and shaking Matsuda's hand, "It's nice to meet you." Matsuda bowed,

"I'm Touta Matsuda, sir," he looked up with a sparkle in his eyes, "I met Light at the library."

"The library?" Dad frowned a bit towards Light, before sighing, "Thank you for bringing him here safely. My shift ended a few minutes ago, and I was just finishing up the last of the paperwork. I can drive you home."

"Oh—Thank you, Yagami-San."

They all headed to the car, and Ryuk followed behind. Matsuda answered any questions he was asked about, namely where exactly to go, and what grade he was in. Normal things.

As Matsuda got out of the car in front of his apartment complex, he waved to Light, "Bye, Light! Maybe we can meet at the library again sometime!" He ran inside, and as soon as he was gone, Dad turned to him,

"Light, I thought we talked about going out on your own."

"But I have Ryuk," Light reminded him, "I'm safe as long as I have Ryuk."

"That's not the point, Light. Did you even tell your mother where you were going?"

Light huffed a bit, crossing his arms in his car seat, "Do you really think she noticed I was gone?"

"Where's this coming from? You're not usually like this, Light."

"She thinks I'm a monster," Light replied simply, and Dad tensed,

"She said that to you?"

"No, but you know it's true."

Dad sighed as he drove home, "I know I can't stop you from going out, but can you at least tell your mother where you're going and be back before sundown?"

"She didn't want me downstairs, so I went to the library and got a book," he held up the book, "Can Mother please read it? You say she loves me, but she's not doing a good job."

"I'll talk to her." He turned to Light when they were at a stoplight, "Give her one more chance, okay? Maybe she'll be able to take better care of you when your sister is born."

Light looked down at his feet, "Okay. I'll do it for you, Dad."

"Thank you, Light."

They got home, and Light was surprised to find Mother outside, her hair messed up, walking through the street, shouting his name. Dad helped him out of his car seat,

"Sachiko, he's right here," he gestured to Light, "He went to the library, and a nice boy brought him back to the office."

"Light!" She ran over to him and hugged him, "I was so worried, baby!"

Hold on, what? Since when did Mother actually care about him? Had he thought she was the bad guy too fast?

He heard the sound of the last of the women at the baby shower leaving now that they knew Light was safe and sound, and Mother carried him inside while Ryuk watched curiously. Light yawned, showing the book he checked out,

"I got a book!" 

Mother smiled, "That's nice, baby."

"It's for you to share with me," he offered it to her, "For child care."

"And," Dad stopped any argument that could come, "Light, let's eat dinner, and then it's your bedtime."

The dinner was silent except for the occasional polite asking how the others' day was, and Light could tell they needed to talk about something but didn't want him around. So he finished quickly and used the stool to get up to the sink and rinse his dish,

"I'll get ready for bed while you two talk," he headed upstairs, "Are we gonna read tonight?"

"Sure, Light," Dad smiled, but it was tense, and Light headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth before getting in his pajamas.

"Ryuk, why was Mother worried about me? She's not normally worried." He removed the piece of Death Note paper from his hip and hid it inside his winter boots, which were in the corner where nobody would disturb them.

Ryuk shrugged, "Humans change their minds about things all the time. You really gonna give her another chance?"

"Maybe," Light reasoned, "Dad wants to fix things, and he already has enough to worry about with the baby coming soon." He lately had started sitting at the stairs with a glass of water ready, waiting for Dad to come home whenever he was late to make sure he didn't have another panic attack since they had been becoming more frequent lately. "Maybe I'm too young to understand."

...

He really shouldn't have been surprised. Light was so young, but also so brilliant, able to understand topics those far older than him struggle with. Still, it was alarming to see a three-year-old disregarding his mother.

But she had been worried about him, so clearly she cared about their son, at least a little. Sachiko had a hand on her growing abdomen, looking at the book Light had checked out, "He got a book to learn to take care of his sister?" She had a saddened look, "And for me."

"Sachiko," he put a hand on hers, "He thinks you see him as a monster, and he doesn't want to try anymore."

"And when someone finds out about his secret, who shouldn't have and he gets taken away?" She looked up at him, "I just want him to be normal, and care for him without knowing that one day we could lose him forever."

"That won't happen. Light's smart."

"And yet he flew to the library, Soichiro!" She shrieked, "He was in his bedroom, and then he was at the library, who knows who could have seen him!"

"That's what this is about? Not the supposed possession?"

"Don't get me wrong," she sighed, "Our child is possessed, and we both know it, but I guess Aizawa made a good point that it seems that this is a separate entity staying with Light, and not having taken over Light's body."

"Please, Sachiko," he pulled her close, "I know it's hard. I worry every day that somebody will find out, but you know that Light probably actually did walk. He's not going to get caught, and I'll make sure of it, even if I have to use my influence in the NPA to do it. I talked him into giving you another chance, please just try to take care of him, Sachiko."

She laughed a bit, "You're always trying to fix everything."

"I'd rather not come home to the house in flames," he joked a bit, "And if we're lucky, the teenage years won't be a nightmare."

There was one thing, though, that had bothered him for months, and he wasn't brave enough to ask. Had they really not been trying for a baby? A dark part of his mind wondered if she had been lying about taking the pill, to try being a normal mother, and didn't tell him. He brushed that thought away, because he shouldn't doubt his wife like that, and she knew him well enough to know that if she had said they should try, he would have agreed. Right?

None of that mattered anymore—they had one more shot at a happy family. If it ended in failure, he had done everything he could, but wouldn't ask Light to give any more chances.

He kissed Sachiko's forehead, "Get some sleep, love. I'll tuck Light in." She nodded, and they both headed upstairs, going their separate ways, and seeing Light's door was open just a crack, and the boy in question was sprawled out on his bed, baby blanket in one hand and his stuffed fox in the other. 

No matter how many times he saw this, Soichiro's heart melted all over again, tucking Light in properly, "Good night, Light,"

Light opened his eyes just a crack, "I can't wait for the baby to come. We're gonna be best friends, right, Dad?"

"Of course." He pulled the comforter up to Light's chin, "You're going to be the best big brother in the world." He hummed quietly, that melody Light was always humming while he read or worked on his projects. He was still perfecting the computer for himself, and Light had mentioned his goal was to be done before his sister was born.

He noticed a strand of Light's hair was brushed out of his face by an invisible force, and Light whispered, "Night, Mom," and Soichiro paused for a moment, before deciding to roll with it and getting up once he saw Light's breathing even out.

...

Mom? Light was calling him Mom now?

Ryuk stared down at the sleeping human, wondering how to feel about this new information. Obviously, he was not the young one's Mother, so why was he calling him that? Was it just pointing out than an actual God of Death who was still struggling to understand human concepts was doing a better job of taking care of the kid than Sachiko?

Regardless, the title made him feel a strange desire to protect the child. That sensation had been building up a lot in the last almost three years, but something about being called Mom really made it stronger.

Who was he kidding? This kid was still going to die unless there was some deal for immortality that Ryuk didn't know about. He was a Shinigami. Why did he feel protective over a human he had known from the beginning wouldn't be around forever—barely any time at all by a Death God's standards, seeing as he was nine hundred and still considered a child by many of the others.

Well, humans knew they were going to die, and they just made the best of the time they had, so Ryuk figured he could do the same since he had been planning to stay with Light his whole life anyway. It was at this moment that he decided that if Light considered him Mom, that was fine. Either way, it was interesting, and that was what he had come here for.


	9. Chapter 9

Light felt himself being woken up from his sleep to a gentle nudging. He yawned, still tired, and went to go back to sleep, but then he heard Dad's somewhat panicked voice, "Light,"

He turned over a bed, untangling his blanket off his head and blinking drowsily, "Wha...? What time is it?"

"1am. Your little sister decided to come a couple days early, so I'm going to take your Mother to the hospital. Aizawa will be here in about half an hour to watch you, okay?"

"Okay," he shooed Dad away, "Go help Mother. I'm going back to sleep."

"I'm not leaving now," Dad replied, "You're too young to be on your own."

"I have Mom," Light replied, "And sleep."

Dad laughed, "You're an amazing kid, Light." He kissed Light's forehead, "Go back to sleep. Hopefully, you'll be able to meet your sister when you wake up."

"Yay," Light smiled sleepily before curling up into a ball and trying to get warm again, far too cold from being woken up before he was ready. He wasn't going to tell Dad that he had been out late buying a doll and reading more about babies. He would be more excited when he had more sleep, but it wasn't like he would be allowed to go to the hospital with them, so he might as well be well-rested.

He felt Ryuk curl up closer to him, and Light nuzzled against the Shinigami's chest as he went back to sleep.

OoOoO

Light woke up to the sun in his eyes, and he blinked away, taking a moment to remember the events of last night, and he noticed Ryuk was no longer curled up next to him but was standing by the window,

"I checked on your parents while you were asleep since Shuichi's here. Your Mother's fine, and your sister is healthy. Her name's Sayu."

Light's face lit up with glee. Sayu! She was here! He knew his parents had been debating between a couple names, and now she had a name!

He threw on some pants, not bothering to change out of his pajama shirt, and ran downstairs, "Aizawa!" He noticed Aizawa asleep on the couch and shook him, "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! We gotta go meet Sayu!"

Aizawa grumbled for a moment as he slowly woke up, sitting up and rubbing his eyes, looking to the clock, "I don't think visiting hours have even started yet."

"They have! They start at 7, and it's 7:15! Come on, let's go!"

"Okay, okay," Aizawa blinked a few more times before being fully awake, "How about I make you some breakfast, and you tidy yourself up a bit. First impressions are important, and hospital food isn't great."

"Okay!" Light ran back upstairs, changing out of his shirt, "Ryuk, what do you wear to meet a baby? Something fancy? Or do you have to wear something soft?"

"I have no idea," Ryuk replied, "I mean, I was holding you in this," he gestured to himself, "So I don't think it matters."

"Thanks!" He just changed into a simple red shirt and then started tidying up his hair a bit and running back downstairs to see Aizawa making an omelet and mumbling about how it was too early for this. "Don't you get up for work earlier than this?"

"Doesn't mean it's not too early," he put the food on a plate, "Eat up." He grabbed an apple from the bowl and threw it at the wall a couple feet away from Light, and it vanished in midair as Ryuk ate it, and Aizawa smirked a bit but said nothing.

"Do you think I should tell Sayu about Ryuk?" Light asked, and Aizawa shrugged,

"I don't know. It all depends, but normally that kind of thing would be chalked up to a child's imagination. Only time will tell." Aizawa paused, "Why exactly can only you see Ryuk?"

"It's—" Light caught himself, "I don't know. Just that it's complicated, and I'll get it when I'm older." He was about halfway done with his food now, "Ai, what if Sayu doesn't like me? Mother's only started liking me since Dad asked her to."

"Don't worry about it," Aizawa assured him, "Even if you two have different interests, I'm sure you'll be close. You're a good kid, Light. Finish eating, go brush your teeth, and let's go."

"All done!" Once again, Light ran upstairs, brushed his teeth, grabbed the doll for Sayu using money he had gotten from chores, and helping around the house, "Let's go!"

"Where'd you get the doll?"

"Bought it last night since I read about when babies will be coming soon."

"Nobody saw Ryuk carrying you?"

"Nope! We were careful."

"Good." He stopped in his tracks, "Crap, I don't have a booster seat." He sighed, "It's pointless to try stopping you, so..." he grabbed two pillows off the couch and put them in his car like a seat, "You get to sit on pillows."

"Is that safe?"

"I don't know, but it's certainly less of a risk than you flying there."

"I'm not stupid, Aizawa."

"Doesn't mean you won't be reckless." 

Light crossed his arms and pouted, before deciding to look out the window and count how many motorcycles he spotted on the way there. It passed the time while driving, and he thought about what he could do with Sayu. She was too little to really play, and she was supposed to sleep a lot.

They got to the hospital, and Light got distracted mere seconds after getting to the receptionist, looking around and seeing what there was to see, noticing other people and balloons. Aizawa caught up with him quickly,

"Don't wander off on me." Light held Aizawa's hand, so he didn't get lost and led along into the room, where he saw his tired parents smiling down at a blanket.

"Hi!" He ran over and climbed onto the bed, gasping quietly when he saw Sayu for the first time. She seemed to be sleeping, with just her head peeking out of the blanket. Mother giggled a bit,

"Light, lower your voice, Sayu's trying to sleep." 

"Sorry," he whispered, "Hi, Sayu!" He put the doll he got for her on top of the blanket she was wrapped in, "Here you go, Sayu." It was a fabric doll with a pink outfit and brown pigtails. It wasn't much, but it was what he could afford, so he got it for her.

"That's very sweet, Light," Dad beamed, deciding not to question where the toy had come from. Mother nudged Light a little bit to get his attention, 

"Would you like to hold her?" Light nodded eagerly, and Mother put Sayu in his lap, "Remember to support her head."

Aizawa looked on at the happy family, "Are you good with him, or should I stay?"

"I can handle him," Dad replied, nodding to Aizawa, "Thank you for watching him." Aizawa bowed and then left, waving goodbye to Light, who waved back and then focused on Sayu.

"Hi, Sayu," he grinned, "I'm Light, your big brother." Sayu made small noises and yawned, opening her eyes slightly,

"I think she recognizes your voice," Dad said, and Light thought back to all those nights he would talk to her when she had been in Mother's stomach.

Ryuk looked down at the baby girl, before laughing and lifting her about an inch off of Light's lap, making Dad's eyes widen, and Mother tensed visibly. Light just laughed, "It's okay, Ryuk's just messing around." Mother sighed whether with nerves or relief, Light didn't know, nor did he care honestly, excited to tell Matsuda all about Sayu!

...

Soichiro watched as Light held Sayu with the utmost care and talked about what he wanted to do with her when she got older. He couldn't have asked for a better son than the one he had.

It had taken a bit, but Sachiko was getting better about being comfortable around Light. It was getting easier once it was made very clear by Light that Ryuk was a separate entity altogether. But at the same time, it was much more unnerving because did that mean they would need to keep this secret with two children? Or would it be fine because this Ryuk being wouldn't risk the kids getting found out? Would Sayu be able to see Ryuk, or just Light?

He decided to push these questions to the side. They could be pondered about or answered another time. What mattered right now was his family and the newest addition.

It had been one hell of a ride to get to this point, but as he watched Light play with Sayu's toes that had escaped her blanket when she started moving, he found that ride had been more than worth it.


	10. Chapter 10

Light laid on his stomach on the play mat, having a staring contest with a slightly over one-year-old Sayu. The last year had been pretty uneventful, and the main thing Light had learned was that sleep was underrated. Sayu was so sweet but loved to scream in the middle of the night.

Sayu giggled and grabbed Light's nose, "Brother," he beamed as she rolled over and sat up, just like he had taught her months ago.

Dad was at work, and Mother was taking a nap upstairs since she had been tired lately. Light got up, hearing his stomach growling, and headed to the fridge, Sayu toddling after him.

He looked to see what there was and noticed they were out of apple sauce, which was Sayu's favorite treat—making her Ryuk-approved.

Ryuk looked over Light's shoulder, "Looks like we're out of a lot."

"Yeah..." he pondered his options. Mother may have been getting better in the last year, but...

_"Mother, we're out of snacks."_

_"Not now, Light. Ask your Dad when he gets home."_

He shuddered at the memories of being a toddler, looking down at his little sister, blissfully ignorant. She didn't know anything about Ryuk yet, or if she did, she didn't ask or understand.

He had some chore money, but it was late at night when he typically went to the store. However, Dad had asked him to stop doing that since the crime rate had gone up by 20% this year, and while he could bolt with Ryuk, that wouldn't be recommended.

That meant he would need to go out during the day. He checked outside and estimated he had about an hour until sunset. He brightened as he got an idea. He had read how to make apple sauce from scratch in a book, and Ryuk needed more apples anyway. There was an apple orchard not far from Matsuda's apartment he had been taken to. If he made good time, he could be there and back before it got dark.

He bent down to Sayu, "I'm going to go out for a bit, okay, Imouto?"

"Why?"

"We're out of apples, and I'm going to get some." He hugged her, "I'll be back before Dad gets home. Mother should be up soon." He grabbed his backpack off the coatrack alongside his jacket, and he smiled when Sayu chased after him,

"Brother!" She tried to follow him, and Light stopped her,

"You're too little to come out. How about you go wake Mother up? Or..." he went back in the house and turned on _Aladdin,_ which was Sayu's favorite movie, and they got it on a VHS tape for her. Within moments she was sucked into the film, and Light wished he could stay because watching her dancing along to the music and sometimes falling over in her excitement, only to laugh and get back up to do it all again, was one of the joys in his life.

He pulled out the map Matsuda had given him, and Ryuk looked over his shoulder to examine it took, "Doesn't seem very far."

"Probably about an hour walk since I'm small," Light muttered, looking up at the clouds, and finished putting his coat on as the chilly October air got to him. "But if we take this back route that I found, you and I might be able to fly, but to reach it, we have to be careful and walk a couple blocks." He adjusted the piece of the Death Note in a secret pocket he had stitched into his rainboots. "And we're headed to an orchard, so you can eat as many apples as you want as long as you keep hidden."

With that, they began the quest to the apple orchard. Light looked to the sky, feeling a raindrop while being carried by Ryuk about halfway through their journey by air. Once they arrived, he was only slightly wet, glad he had packed an umbrella, pulling it out and searching for apples.

Ryuk darted off into the nearest tree but kept close to Light, peeking out of the tree to make sure Light was still safe as he analyzed a tree to determine if he could climb it. The rain wasn't too bad, so if he was careful, he should be able to get a firm grip since he had a jump rope he could use.

Mother questioned why he had so many supplies in his backpack, but as Matsuda had said and Dad agreed, you could never be too prepared.

He used the jump rope and hooked it around the tree's trunk, giving him the ability to climb up easier and swing onto a branch that could support his weight. He turned, opening a second, more open, compartment of his backpack and put as many apples in as possible.

He felt the exact moment he made an awful mistake when he moved to another branch and heard a snapping sound underneath him. Everything felt like it was going in slow motion as he collided with a branch below as the one he was standing on broke under his feet, and he ended up landing on his back, his backpack discarded next to him.

He couldn't breathe, frantically trying to get any air in as pain in increasing amounts came from both his chest and especially his left arm.

...

Ryuk had heard it before he saw it, that panicked yelp from Light, the rustling of a tree, and then a loud 'thud!'

He regretted turning around for a second because what he saw when he located Light actually terrified him for a moment. If it weren't for the lifespan he could still see permitted a long time left, he would have mistaken the child for dead.

"Light!" He flew over, and eyes widened when he saw the sleeve of Light's jacket was cut by a particularly pointy part of a branch, and blood was coming out, and Light had his eyes wide in terror, trying to get air in. What was going on?! Why couldn't he breathe? Was this a normal human thing? He wasn't dying, so what was happening?

Having no idea what to do, he just tried to sit Light up because he wasn't moving aside from the occasional twitching of his chest. Thankfully it only took a few seconds before Light's breathing slowly went back to normal. But then it changed to crying.

"Ma—Mom," Light began to cry harder, looking down at his arm, which was still covered by torn fabric,

"Kid, what's going on?" Ryuk asked with a little more panic than was hopefully called for, and Light got up on shaky legs and tried to grab his backpack up off the ground, but the second he tried to lift with his bloody arm, he shrieked in pain and pulled the limb to his chest, squeezing his eyes shut and shaking his head.

"I—I think," Light whispered, "I need help."

Not wanting to wait for any humans to find the crying and injured child alone in the orchard, Ryuk didn't hesitate to scoop Light up with his backpack and take off into the sky, high enough that Light could be mistaken for a bird. But he knew that as a young human, Light couldn't stay up here for long.

Where could he go? Going to Soichiro could work, but to actually get to him ran the risk of Light needing to carry himself through the building and to his father. Aizawa and Ide were probably at work, and that left home and...

It was risky, but Ryuk considered Light's older friend and then dove down to Matsuda's apartment, looking around to make sure nobody was walking by and knocking on Matsuda's window.

The boy got up from his bed, and his eyes widened when he saw Light hovering at the fourth-floor window. His eyes were wide, but then he opened the window, seeing the obvious pain on Light's face, "Come in, come in," he helped Light inside and then looked below the window, where there were, sure enough, no ledges. "Light, were you just—were you just flying?! And what happened here?!"

Light smiled meekly, forcing a small laugh, "I fell out of a tree."

"You fell out of a tree?" Matsuda asked with an incredulous expression, "And you were just flying?" He looked around the room and then slowly tried to help Light out of his jacket, "You're lucky my sister's at her friend's place and Mom's getting groceries. I—I'll get some ice." He hurried off, and Ryuk finished helping Light out of his jacket, and Light looked to him with fear,

"We can't let people know the secret, Ryuk!"

"You're also bleeding and," he blinked, "Your arm is changing colors." Why was it doing that?!

...

_This is bad. This is bad._

Dad had told him so many times that nobody could know the secret! Even Sayu couldn't know yet! And what would Matsuda do? He wanted to trust his friend, but he did know Matsuda was excitable and what if he said something by accident—

He looked down and saw his arm was swelling a lot, and there were messy scratches on his forearm. He tried not to think about the pain and found the terror of someone knowing his secret kept him occupied.

Matsuda came back with an ice pack, a towel, and a hoodie, "Okay! Let's look at—oh, that's broken. Can you move your fingers?"

"A bit ago I could," he tried again but found he couldn't, only bringing himself more pain, and he fought back a sob. Matsuda just brushed back a strand of his messy black hair and then wrapped the ice pack in a towel and put it under Light's arm, and then used the hoodie to keep it in place, 

"I'm going to call your Dad."

"Maybe I should," Light muttered, "Can you hand me the phone?" His breathing picked up a bit as he thought about his poor Dad. What if this caused another panic attack—or what if this caused a heart attack?! He read that those could happen from stress while figuring out when the Death Note's default could be safely used on criminals.

Matsuda handed him the phone, and Light called Dad, glad that Dad did have Matsuda's number for when they hung out, "Hey, Dad..."

_"Light? I thought you were at home. Does your mother know you're out?"_

"She was napping, and Sayu's watching a movie," he sucked in a breath, whimpering in pain as he shifted his arm, "I went out to the orchard since we were out of apples and..." here it comes, "I broke my arm, and Ryuk brought me to Matsuda's window on the fourth floor."

Silence on the other end of the line, and Light bit his lip, sighing in relief when he finally heard Dad's voice, _"I'll be there in five minutes. Make sure Matsuda keeps the secret, but I think he's trustworthy. Make sure to keep your arm still."_

"Okay. Love you, Dad." He hung up, "Dad will be here in five minutes."

Matsuda nodded a bit, and then he brightened, "You can fly?!"

"No," Light replied, "I have a friend named Ryuk that only I can see. He carries me. But people who see it do think I have powers..." he smiled sheepishly, looking to Ryuk, who was watching what was happening with great interest, "Matsuda, you can't tell anyone."

Matsuda blinked for a moment, "That's obvious, right?"

"Huh?"

He got up and dug through his bookshelf, showing off comic books, "It's a rule of thumb for the best friend of anyone tied to the supernatural to never reveal the secret! It only causes disaster!"

"Best friend?" Light brightened, and Matsuda nodded,

"Yeah, you're kind of my only friend. I'm not popular." Deciding not to think much of that, Light hugged Matsuda with his good arm, and then they both heard a fast knocking at the door, and Dad was let in, rushing over to Light's side, stopping in his tracks when he saw the makeshift cast, and then examining it,

"Where exactly does it hurt, Light?"

"From the elbow down," Light replied, "Matsuda's keeping the secret!" Dad turned to Matsuda, who nodded confirmation, and Dad shook his hand,

"Welcome to the inner circle, and thank you for taking care of my son. Now," he picked Light up with one arm, "I'm taking you to the hospital, Light. Your mother and Sayu will meet us there."

"I want to go to the hospital too!" Matsuda pleaded, "I don't want to just leave my friend!"

Dad hesitated for a moment before gesturing for Matsuda to come along, "I'll call your father and let him know you're with me."

"Oh, my parents don't care," Matsuda replied, "I'm home alone all the time, and as long as I'm back before 10pm, they don't care where I am."

"I'm still calling your parents," Dad replied, heading out, and Matsuda followed, and as they all got in the car, Light asked,

"Dad, are you okay?"

Dad was quiet for a moment before processing the real question: _"Are you going to have a hard time tonight?"_

"I am relieved that Matsuda will be keeping the secret. That gets some stress off my shoulders. I'll be fine, Light."

Light knew he couldn't let Dad out of his sight tonight, just in case.

Matsuda adjusted the hoodie tied to Light's arm, "Is that any better?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

"You're good at tying those," Dad muttered, and Matsuda beamed,

"Thank you, sir! I've been practicing. I like helping people."

"I'm glad," Dad replied, a genuine smile on his face, "I'm glad Light met you."

OoOoO

The hospital trip was dull for Light. It was exciting seeing new things, but all the doctors and nurses talked down to him as though he didn't understand a word of what they were saying, and all Light wanted was for them to please just give him the x-ray and something to deal with this pain. And when he expressed his desires, they just said he was a smart boy and gave him a lollipop.

When they finally gave him the x-ray, he had apparently broken the shaft of his ulna badly enough that it came up on the scans immediately. The doctor said that while it wasn't a completely clean break, it would heal just fine, but he couldn't climb any trees for a while.

As soon as his cast was put on, a bright red color, Matsuda was the first to sign it, writing his name in big letters of TOUTA. Ryuk signed it too, curious about why humans did this, but this was done in the car since they were going to head for dinner with Mother and Sayu.

Matsuda watched the sharpie move seemingly of its own accord, "So Ryuk's in the car right now?"

"Kind of," Light replied, "He's only in here enough that the fact its moving doesn't bother him, but he's actually on the floor and phasing through it."

"Cool! So how long has he been with you?"

"Since I was..." Light tried to remember, "Dad?"

"Four months old. It's been over four years."

"Does anyone else know?"

"Only my babysitters," Light replied, "So that's six people now. Sayu doesn't know yet."

The car stopped, and Dad turned, "We're here." They all got out of the car, and Dad turned to Matsuda, "Your mother said we can drop you off after dinner."

"Thank you for bringing me, sir," Matsuda replied, and Light quickly noticed Mother and Sayu in the restaurant and waved, grateful for the Advil he had been given at the hospital. 

But of course, he knew exactly what Dad was doing, trying to goad him into asking if Matsuda could spend the night. He was trying to keep Light from being able to check on him at 2am. He examined Dad and saw that his breathing was calm, and none of the normal tells were present, but if he knew one thing, it was that his father could be one hell of an actor when he wanted to be.

He did want Matsuda to stay over, but asking right now seemed a little strange since after dinner had already been specified, and there were always other times.

The apples were still in his backpack, which was safely in the car, and Light couldn't help but wonder if they were actually there or if Ryuk had eaten them already. Oh well.

"What happened?!" Mother asked, looking at his arm, and Light shrugged a bit,

"I went to get apples and fell out of a tree," she blinked, and he gestured to Matsuda, "He knows, and he's keeping the secret."

Matsuda looked to Light, "Why didn't you just go to the store or ask your parents?"

Tense silence from the table, everyone knowing the reason but not wanting to say it. Matsuda shrunk down,

"Sorry, was I not supposed to ask that?"

"It's fine," Light replied, thinking of just the lie to ease Matsuda's worries, "I get bored easily, and kind of do what I want. Mother and Dad have long-since given up on stopping me as long as I don't go out after dark until the crime rate goes back down. But it's kind of awkward to admit."

"Oh." Matsuda laughed a bit, "Looking back on when we met, that makes sense."

They all ended up talking for a while and eating dinner. Sayu was happy to color and show Light her drawings of flowers, and he gave her the sharpie, and she drew some on his cast. Flowers were the first thing she had figured out how to draw, and she loved doing it.

Dinner went well, with everyone making pleasant conversation and Matsuda learning as much as he could about what had been going on for the last four years, fascinated by it.

After dropping Matsuda off back home, Dad looked to Light, "He's a good friend to you."

"Are you mad he found out?"

"No," Dad replied, "It could have been worse, and I suspected he would keep the secret, but we still have to be careful. There are bad people in this world, Light. But I prefer that he had found out, and you were cared for instead of you walking home with your arm broken. How is your arm feeling?"

"Kind of numb," Light replied, "Still sore."

"Right. Light, do you really still not trust your mother to even ask about buying food? You said she's gotten better."

"I don't know," Light replied, looking down at his legs and leaning against Ryuk, who was forcing himself into the car, "Every time I try to ask for anything, I keep expecting to be dismissed. I said I'd give her another chance, not that I'd trust her."

"Light..." Dad sighed, "I know you're a remarkable child, but you don't have to keep trying to take matters into your own hands. Sometimes it's good to rely on your parents."

"But who takes care of the parents then?"

"That's not normally how it works," Dad replied, "I know your life will never be what others would call normal, but you're four, Light. Maybe when you get into school, you can try to let go a bit. You still have a whole life ahead of you. Don't waste it by worrying about us."

"And let Sayu be abandoned the second she's not 'normal'? Or you to be alone and suffering in silence because you're overworked but determined to help everyone?" Light asked, "Why can't we just kill the criminals, so nobody commits crimes anymore? Then you can be home." Sure, with the computer that Light had built, Dad was home more, but still not nearly enough because he had to be at work in person a lot of the time.

"That's not how this works, Light. We can't just kill criminals unless it's specifically the Death Penalty."

"Certainly would save us some trouble," Light muttered, and Ryuk looked down at Light,

"Are you thinking about the notebook?"

Light nodded subtly, looking out the window, knowing he wasn't experienced enough with the world to create such a place where nobody would commit crimes anymore.

He barely noticed them get home, and Dad took him out of the booster seat while Ryuk brought in the backpack, "Come on, you've had a busy day. Let's go to bed." Light clung to him, and Dad softened a bit, sighing, "You don't have to worry, Light. I'm fine. You should never have had to worry about this."

"I don't like it when you're upset," Light replied, "Someone has to help."

"My little hero," he sat down with Light, "I'm positive that you're going to change the world, Light."

"I hope so," Light replied, and that brought a broad grin to Ryuk's face,

"Changing the world sounds interesting." Of course, Light figured, doing that with the Death Note was too risky if just getting rid of the criminals wasn't allowed. It just didn't make sense to Light. Murders were impatient because they didn't just wait for someone to die, but if bad people were already locked up and were going to be in there for a long time, why not kill them?

He couldn't wait to start school because he could start learning about the world and what was wrong with it, making people impatient and wanted to hurt others. If he found that out, it was a good place to start. Data collection was always a good place to start. Maybe he could become a police officer like Dad? Or maybe become someone who could change laws.

He heard the soft snoring from Dad and noticed he had fallen asleep midway through the chapter they had been reading. Light went to move but struggled, so Ryuk moved the book to the nightstand and pulled the blankets, so father and son were underneath them.

Light yawned, deciding to get some sleep before the pain killers wore off, "Goodnight, Dad. Goodnight, Mom."

Ryuk brushed back Light's hair, "Goodnight, Light."


	11. Chapter 11

Since Sayu was born, Light's days had begun to follow a routine of the sort, since he and Ryuk needed to be more careful with the secret until she was old enough to understand its importance. It was extremely boring, only having some variety in his daily activities, but Light found ways to make do even with his broken arm.

But after some debate and reading books on philosophy and human nature—which led to a lot of reading dictionaries to learn new words—Light realized that having her know from a young age would actually be beneficial.

Typically, Mother watched him throughout the day and would keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't try to tell Sayu. But today was different because Dad was changing his hours for the day, and Mother was hanging out with Matsuda's Mom for the day.

The reason was that tonight was Light's first sleepover, having Matsuda over. So Dad had changed his hours today to be home at a reasonable time, and it had been timed on one of Aizawa's day off. Ide was still working, but one of his two normal babysitters who knew his secret and didn't really care about it coming over meant Light had more freedom than he did with Mother.

Aizawa was working downstairs on a case, and Light knew from what he had glimpsed that it was a serious case. He may only be almost five, but he did know how to take care of himself, and Sayu was already bathed, changed, and fed, so all that needed to happen was to keep her entertained.

So Light was sitting in Sayu's room with one of her crowns on his head, enjoying one of her tea parties with her toys and Ryuk, as she brought them treats that had been secretly brought upstairs or plastic ones from her toy kitchen off to the side.

He ate one of the brownies, leaning in, "Hey, Sayu, do you wanna know a secret?"

"What?"

"Check this out," Light looked to Ryuk, and they had agreed to run with the narrative that he just had superpowers when around Sayu. He flicked his wrist a bit, and Ryuk picked Sayu up. She yelped and kicked her legs in confusion, and Light made the gesture for Ryuk to put her down.

Sayu spun around in a circle, almost spinning herself off balance, and he had to have Ryuk catch her. Upon realizing nobody she could see had picked her up, she began jumping up and down, "Again! Again! Again!"

Ryuk laughed and picked her up again, and followed around Light's gestures as Sayu whopped and shrieked with delight at "flying" around the room, the fairy wings on her back almost real in her young mind.

They both turned when Aizawa suddenly came in, "What's going—Oh." He groaned a bit and looked down at Light, "Is she doing that on her own, or are you or Apple Demon responsible? Do I need to worry about more flying children and another Apple Demon?"

"No," Light replied, and Aizawa nodded a bit, shrugging,

"Well then, I'd say carry on, but it's time for Sayu's nap."

Sayu crossed her arms, pouting, "No!" She pointed at Light, "Magic!"

Light looked up to Aizawa, "Five more minutes?"

"Fine. Five more minutes." But he didn't leave, watching as the two siblings played, and he leaned down and stole one of the brownies, "This is mine now."

"Hey!" Light laughed, and Aizawa rolled his eyes,

"I'm the one who let you eat those. Therefore I have rights to one." He took a bite, "But seriously, your parents need to stop buying these. Every time Ide and I babysit, they end up eaten by either you, or us when you are asleep, and it's becoming a problem."

Sayu poked Light's cheek, "Magic! Magic!" Light grinned and flicked his wrist, and Ryuk picked up one of the toy plates, spinning it on his claw, and Aizawa sat down and watched the display, which made Sayu clap.

"Alright, now it's time for a nap." He said in a no-nonsense tone, "Light will be able to show you more magic after your nap, but you won't be able to have fun if you're tired." He helped her out of her dress and into her pajamas.

Sometimes Light wondered how Aizawa did it. He just had a way with young children, which Light had noticed didn't apply with himself and Sayu, but other kids around the area they came across.

Sayu would normally cry and protest against her nap if it was Mother or Dad asking, but something about Aizawa just worked, and after being given an extra five minutes and being tucked in for a nap, she was ready to sleep.

As Light followed Aizawa out of Sayu's room, he considered his questions that he was too nervous to ask Dad. But would Aizawa answer them?

He supposed that he would have to ease into it for some of his questions, "So what case are you working on?"

"A murder. Pretty simple stabbing, but the body was found long after death, making identification difficult, so we're trying to narrow down who exactly the victim would be." He groaned, "Between you and me, kid, it's not as exciting as it sounds. I know your Dad probably wants to make police work seem exciting, but most of it is just endless paperwork. Sometimes, you can tell by looking at a case that the paperwork outweighs anything fun."

"So, do you get time at home with your fiancé?"

"Not as much as she or I would hope," he sat down at the case files and words in a notepad, which Light noticed was written notes about possible John Doe figures the victim could be. Normally, he may be inclined to look more into it, but he wanted to ask his questions.

"What would the punishment be for when the culprit is caught?"

"It depends on the circumstances. If this is someone who has killed others or a particular motive like a kidnapping for ransom that we aren't yet aware of, then it's the death penalty. Otherwise, it's probably life imprisonment."

"Why not just kill all criminals?" He dared ask, "Why do we execute some and not others? Wouldn't that make people not commit crimes anymore?"

Aizawa chuckled a bit, "You have asked me some weird things over the years, so I shouldn't be surprised you're asking. Let me guess: you're too nervous to ask your Dad?" 

Light nodded, "I don't know what he thinks about the death penalty at all."

"Your Dad has a more traditional sense of it, that the rules are there for a reason, and you only execute the worst of the worst. Admittedly, you have a point in specific circumstances, and I am sure plenty of people agree with you, but nothing is that simple, Light."

"What do you think about the death penalty?"

Aizawa hesitated for a moment, picking Light up and resting him in his lap, "Listen, my beliefs are a bit of an outlier from the rest of the police force. But personally, I think the whole system is unreliable."

Unreliable? That wasn't something he had ever heard before. "Why?"

"Do you know how the police find out if a suspect is guilty?" When Light shook his head, Aizawa explained, "It varies, but the methods can include long-term confinement, persistent questioning, even bordering on torture. Now, tell me, if you were in that situation and there was one thing that would make the pain stop, would you do it?"

"Oh..." Light bowed his head, "Innocent people confess just to make the pain go away."

"Exactly." Aizawa straightened a bit, "Your Dad has always stayed away from those methods. It's part of what made him so popular, being able to collect enough evidence that such tactics weren't used. That's what Ide and I strive to do, to make sure we get the right culprit and don't need to use those strategies. But just because three cops use a different method doesn't mean other officers don't arrest innocent people. It's actually considered abnormal to be against the less humane methods."

Light tensed, grateful now that he had asked those questions, "But surely people know confessions like that shouldn't count!"

"In America, yeah, but here the confession counts no matter the means it was obtained." He shrugged a bit, "Besides, that's not the only reason why executing all criminals doesn't work. After all, there are reasons why crimes are committed, such as self-defense or feeling like there is no other option."

"No other option?"

"Let me give you an example from one of my earlier cases." He paused, as though realizing he was talking to a young child, and this wasn't something a kid should know. But then he made up his mind, "It was a murder, but the victim was killed in revenge. The victim was abusive and drove the culprit's relative to suicide. There has been a debate, and many people think the culprit was right to do what he did, and the victim deserved it. What do you think about that, Light? Do you think the culprit deserves the death penalty?"

"No...." Light's brow furrowed, "Does stuff like that happen a lot?"

"Not that one specifically, but there are reasons for some murders. The world isn't black and white. And it's not even just murder. What about a man who steals because he can't afford to feed his family?"

"You're right..." he pondered it, "But for murders, it's impatient to kill them. Everyone dies eventually."

"That is a good point, and why even if there is a reason unless it's self-defense, the person will go to prison."

"But... if everyone will die eventually, why not just get it over with instead of wasting their lives locked up on a sentence they won't live to see the end of."

Aizawa sighed, "I don't have all the answers, Light. That's a debate about morality, and people on Death Row are still locked up for months or years before execution."

"That seems unnecessary," Ryuk muttered, and Light looked up to him.

"Agreed." He turned to Aizawa to clarify, "It's unnecessary."

"Yeah." He looked down at Light's brace, which he had since he had gotten the cast off, but still needed support, "When are you getting that off?"

"I need it for a little while," Light looked at the black brace, removing the velcro and looking at his arm and the scars littering it from having hit the branches. The scars were supposed to fade given a little time, and he hoped they would before he went to school next year because he didn't want to explain how he got them. "But I can take it off occasionally if I'm careful."

"Well, that's a relief." Aizawa went to put the case file away, but Light reached for it, and Ryuk put it back on the table. Aizawa rolled his eyes, "You better not tell your Dad I let you look at this."

"I won't! Promise!" He put on his best smile, "Please?"

It didn't take much convincing before Aizawa huffed, crossing his arms, "Fine."

OoOoO

The knock at the door made Light jump up from the couch where he was playing with Sayu. Dad wasn't happy at first about Light revealing his secret, but when he explained his thinking that nobody would think it was anything more than a child's imagination. When she got older, she would inevitably think any "magic" was just a trick, helped by the fact Light was playing with magic tricks. When she was able to keep the secret, they could tell her the truth.

And if he told Sayu the truth on the same day that he was having a sleepover with Matsuda so Dad could calm Mother down before she went to scream at him, nobody had to know.

He ran to the door and opened it, hugging Matsuda, "Matsuda!"

Matsuda picked him up, beaming, "I missed you!" Light noticed Matsuda had his backpack, and he grinned to Mother and Matsuda's Mom. It had been a debate if sleepovers were an option due to the age gap, but it was decidedly okay since Light behaved like someone much older.

"Have fun, you two," Matsuda's Mom said and turned to Mother, "I'll pick him up at 10am tomorrow?"

"Okay!" Matsuda ran upstairs with Light, "Bye, Mom!" They hurried up to Light's room, and Matsuda rolled his eyes, "She'll be here around noon. I hope your parents don't mind tardiness."

"But I thought she just said 10am...?"

Matsuda shrugged, "Not a lot of people have me over because she's always late. One time she didn't pick me up at all after working on a school project, and I had to stay the night unplanned." He dug into his bag, pulling out some apples, "I brought apples for Ryuk!" 

Ryuk beamed and lunged for them, taking the apples and devouring them, having been deprived since Light couldn't go out, and the only apples they had around was what Aizawa and Ide brought, or the occasional time Mother bought some.

Light giggled, "Thanks. I haven't been able to go out much."

"Understandable," he pulled out the disk for _Final Fantasy V,_ "You have a game console in here, right?"

"Yeah!" It had been a gift for being a good big brother to Sayu for a year, and he was excited to play new games. He and Ryuk had played all the Mario games multiple times, but it was nice to have a refreshing change.

Ryuk was sitting on the bed, watching as the game loaded up, "What's this?" Light spun around to him,

"It's a new game!" He examined the controllers, "How do you play?"

"I'll show you, or the tutorial will."

There was a knock, and Dad came in with some popcorn, "I thought you two would want a snack."

"Thank you, Yagami-San." Matsuda bowed a bit from where he sat, and Dad smiled affectionately at the boy. He looked to Light,

"Try not to stay up too late."

"Okay, Dad!" 

Sayu came charging in and flung herself at Light, "Magic! Do the magic!"

Dad picked her up, "You brought that on yourself, Light," he picked Sayu up, "Not right now, Princess. Light's playing with a friend."

"But I wanna see the magic!"

"You can see the magic tomorrow." Dad headed out of the room, still carrying Sayu under his arm, which was the only way to carry her without her escaping. "If you two get hungry, there are some leftovers, and any treats Aizawa didn't either eat or let you eat—we really need to stop buying those."

When Dad left, Matsuda smirked a bit, "So did you get any stories from your babysitters about when you were little?"

"Yeah!" Light tried to remember them, "Aizawa never took any of it too seriously, but there was an incident with a meatloaf coming to life..."

Ryuk burst out laughing, "Ah yes, one of my many attempts to scare Shuichi, ending in failure."

"There was also the making breakfast in the equivalent of zero-G..." Light counted on his fingers, "And I kept crawling into the vents."

"Oh, right!" Ryuk cackled, "You never cried much as a baby, but the day you couldn't fall into the vent anymore, you cried for six hours straight, and Aizawa was celebrating not having to worry about that anymore. Your parents came back to both him and Ide drinking from having to listen to you for hours. Your parents were disturbed by the teens drinking in their living room until they got the context and had to listen to you screaming for an hour."

Light blinked at Ryuk and then turned to Matsuda, "Apparently, I lost it when I couldn't fit in the vent anymore and drove my underage babysitters to drink."

"Wow." Matsuda started laughing, "You know, I wish I had a demon friend to hang out with and have adventures with."

"Ryuk's kind of like my Mom," Light admitted and slumped a bit, "Mother's still worried about fitting in at school. She's better, but I know she still thinks I'm not normal enough to go to school."

"Well..." Matsuda bit his fist for a moment as he thought, "I can probably give you some tips about surviving school. But Light, fitting in isn't necessarily a good thing."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, most kids your age can't even read yet," he gestured around the room and the books and some textbooks for high school that Light was determined to teach himself, even if he was struggling. There were also a few anatomy books since he was curious about how the body worked. "You don't think like other kids, so why pretend you do?"

"Mother says that kids are mean to people who don't fit in."

"True," he pulled Light close, "But if kids are mean to you, that means they're jealous. Besides, you're the son of a great cop and the Superintendent of the NPA, so why would anyone risk hurting you? Pretending to be something you're not will only hurt you in the long run."

"I guess you're right," he hugged himself a bit, "But I'm probably not going to have many friends, am I?"

"It doesn't matter how many friends you have. What matters is how good of friends they are. Between you and me, I honestly think school is just going to be boring for you."

"Oh no," Ryuk moaned, "Boring?! I was hoping school would be something exciting with how much Sachiko's stressing about your social success in it!"

Light giggled, "Ryuk's already complaining about it." Matsuda did it best to look in the general area of where he guessed Ryuk was, used to the idea of only Light being able to see him,

"Welcome to being one of the people forced to go, Ryuk." He hummed a but, "I wonder if skipping grades is possible?"

"Dad already checked. It's not." Light grumbled, "It is in America, but I don't want to leave home."

"Bummer," Matsuda shrugged, taking a handful of the popcorn, "Well, come on, you've still got a year to escape school. We don't need to worry about that yet. Should we play the game?"

Deciding to relax and follow Matsuda's advice, Light grabbed the controller, "Yeah!" 


	12. Chapter 12

Anxiety.

Perhaps it was abnormal for a six-year-old to feel that in the presence of other kids his age for the first day of school—something normal and even celebrated in society—but for Light, this was the first time in his life that he was around so many children.

Ryuk seemed perfectly amused, but Light was quick to abandon Mother and hide in a corner between the wall and a bookshelf and pull out _Ender's Game_ to read and hope the people would go away soon. He pulled out his two notebooks to translate it into Japanese and French to make sure he kept sharp on his language.

"Light, what are you doing?" Mother asked when she finally found him, "We're supposed to be taking pictures."

"Do I have to?" Light asked, "I'm just getting to the good part! And..." he looked to the other kids and then to Ryuk, who was sitting with him.

Mother grabbed his hand, "Come on, Light, I don't ever ask much of you. Please just be normal and come take the photos."

"But... you ask me to do a lot of things like clean the house," he started counting on his fingers, "Take care of Sayu, make sure Dad has time to relax, maybe make small dinner—"

"You don't pay the bills."

"Doesn't Dad do that?"

Mother glared, "That's just normal responsibilities all children have to do, just like all children take pictures on their first day of school."

Ryuk snorted, "I don't think all children have a Shinigami as a more competent parent." He grabbed Light's waist and pulled him back a bit, his feet just barely off the ground. Mother huffed, knowing that she wasn't going to win, or Light would take off. But he found himself terrified for when they got home and behind closed doors.

So much pressure had been put on him for three years to be perfect and fit in like other kids, but even the idea of being around so many people wasn't pleasant.

"Fine," she growled a bit, holding his hand and pulling him along, "Let's go meet one of your teachers then."

Light hastily packed up his bag and followed her, Ryuk tagging along, and he ended up in the room of his new math teacher, and the name on the board said Ms. Abiko. He waved sheepishly, "Hi."

"Hello," she bent down to him, "You're one of the first graders, right?"

"Yeah," he relaxed, much more comfortable talking to an adult, "Can I ask a question?"

"Of course you can. What is it?"

He grinned, "I've been working with the quadratic formula, and I wanted to make sure, since part of the equation is -b, that means if b was a negative number, the two would cancel out and become a positive, right?"

Ms. Abiko stared at him with complete shock for a couple of seconds as though she could not process what she was hearing, "That... That's right."

"Thank you!" Maybe school wouldn't be too bad if he could stick close to the teachers.

Of course, from the books he had read and advice from Matsuda, he shouldn't give off the impression of being a teacher's pet. It wasn't about fitting in and more that kids actively hated the teacher's pet, and it could end in him getting bullied. Because of this, he couldn't sit in the front row.

The back row in any class would imply he was one of the rowdy kids who didn't listen, and that wasn't what he wanted if he hoped to be closer to the teachers, so he decided a seat in the middle would suit his needs best.

He took a deep breath. He could do this. This wasn't going to be too bad.

OoOoO

Of his two children, Soichiro never expected that he would end up talking to the principal about Light. On the first week, no less! How was that even possible?!

He knew it was irrational, but when he got the call that he and his wife should come to talk to the principal, his first thought was that Light somehow revealed his secret. Light was a careful kid, so that probably didn't happen, but then he remembered when Light was a baby and whenever he got bored, supernatural occurrences would begin happening.

"What's going on?" He asked, and noticed Sachiko was here too and not happy. "Is something wrong?"

Mr. Suzuki shook his head, "Nothing is wrong, please, have a seat." He obeyed, and the principal smiled a bit, "I promise you, your son hasn't done anything wrong. His teachers say he's very shy, but he is very bright."

"So what's this about?" Sachiko asked, and Mr. Suzuki seemed almost amused,

"Well, it actually seems Light's teachers have agreed he is a little too smart. Fluently bilingual, an understanding of the world around him, phenomenal arithmetic skills, your son is easily one of the most gifted students I have seen."

"So, what's the issue?" Soichiro asked hesitantly.

"I wanted to propose something to you for your son's education," Mr. Suzuki said, "It's not common, but have you considered having him participate in online education? He can't skip grades, but with his advanced level, his teachers and I agree he would be able to breeze through all of elementary school this school year."

"We considered that," Soichiro said, "But we thought it would be best for him to interact with kids his own age."

"Have you considered extracurricular activities like sports? According to his language teacher, he seems more content to keep to himself and seems afraid of other kids because of his intelligence. Of course, I am not his parent; I am just suggesting from what I have heard about your son, some options to ensure he can learn to the best of his ability."

Soichiro chuckled a bit, "I wouldn't have thought such a suggestion would happen so fast."

"Your son was the first thing the staff talked about at the end of each school day. It's not every day you find a kid like that."

"I see," he sighed in relief, grateful Light's secret was still intact, and he had made a positive impression on his teachers, "We'll talk with Light about it and get back to you on Monday. Is that alright?"

"Of course," he stood up, shaking both Soichiro and Sachiko's hands, "Thank you for coming in."

"My pleasure," he headed out with Sachiko, hands in his pockets, "I'll say that went well."

Sachiko was not so thrilled, "I told you we should have had him around more kids his age. You heard what the principal said, that Light is shy. You and I both know he's not shy!"

"Yes, well, he's only ever been around Sayu and people who are older than him, for the sake of his secret."

"Exactly! No child should have his best friends being a young teenager and two grown men!" Soichiro shook his head, knowing Sachiko had a point, but where was Light even supposed to find kids his age? He met Matsuda by chance after wandering to the library, and no surprise instances like that had happened again.

"Maybe getting him into sports where there is already a start of conversation will help him. I do understand where he's coming from, being nervous about other kids. I'm sure when he gets older, he'll be more comfortable."

"I suppose you're right," she grumbled, "But he's supposed to be comfortable with people and able to balance a school and social life. All he does is read and learn or play video games with whatever demon sticks with him. That's not normal, Soichiro. I'm worried about him."

He actually laughed a bit, "I gave up on Light being normal when he started asking about the answer to life, the universe, and everything. I told him the answer was 42, but I doubt he was satisfied." He shrugged, "Look on the bright side. His ability to learn at his own pace means his secret is less likely to come out, and sports mean he will be even further distracted. I'll talk to him about it to see what he wants."

When he got home, he saw Light playing with Sayu, and he was glad that his instinct that Light could take care of his sister for the mere half-hour they were gone worked out well since he hadn't been able to call Aizawa or Ide on such short notice.

"What did the principal say?" Light asked worriedly as he put down the doll he was holding, "Am I in trouble?"

"Not at all," he assured him, "Come on, Light, I do want to talk to you about what we learned." He brought Light upstairs into his room, rolling his eyes when he saw the clutter on Light's desk. He had had one since he was little, but as a gift for the first day of school, he had gotten a new one, and already it was covered in books and notebooks. He still could not figure out where Light's love of notebooks came from. Still, if it helped Light not be bored, he decided it wasn't any of his business, figuring he just liked having different ones for various purposes and wanted to keep each separate.

"What is it?" Light asked, sitting down, and Soichiro sat down with him,

"Your principal was telling us that you are a very gifted kid, and all of your teachers agree. However—"

"Am I too quiet?" He asked meekly, "I just—"

"Light," he put his hand on Light's leg, "You didn't do anything wrong. Your teachers were just saying you already know everything you're supposed to for this year, and it was suggested you learn online. We haven't gone through the details, but if you are interested, we can transfer you online, so you can get through your classes faster if you want to."

"I like that," Light mumbled, and Soichiro added on,

"But if we are going to do that, we have to make a compromise, okay?" Light looked up in intrigue, "You need to pick one activity that will let you meet other kids your age. Preferably a sport, but as long as you pick one, I don't care what you do. You don't have to decide right now, but—"

"How about fencing?" Light asked, "I've always been interested in that."

"Alright then, I'll look for something." He went to get up but then noticed Light was shaking, "What's wrong, son?"

"Is Mother going to be mad because I'm not normal?"

Was this ever going to stop? It was always this debate between Sachiko and Light about being normal.

"It's not about being normal. Your mother just wants you to be able to blend in but still shine enough that your life will be as easy as possible, and having Ryuk around," he noticed Light was floating now, as though he was sitting in his demon companion's lap. "That makes having a normal life impossible. It's not a bad thing. It just means life will not be as straightforward."

"Fitting in isn't always good," Light echoed what Matsuda had said, "I just don't want her to be mad at me."

"She won't be," he then grinned a bit, "Hey, how about we prove her wrong. You'll do your best and still be able to be happy, even without being 'normal.' Don't ever be ashamed of who you are, Light. We just have to adapt and overcome, that's all."

"Thank you, Dad," Light moved, still hovering, and hugged Soichiro's neck, "Yeah! I can do it!"

"That's my boy." They broke apart, and both laughed, "I still can't believe it took you a week to get your mother and I in the principal's office. Honestly, I would have expected it to be Sayu."

Light giggled, and Sayu came running in, jumped at Light, knocking him onto the bed and into his nest of blankets, "Light!"

Soichiro smiled at his two children, grateful they were getting along, and headed downstairs for dinner.

OoOoO

Light absently played _Super Mario World_ with Ryuk. It was long past midnight, and he knew he should really be in bed, but his mind was in hyperdrive as he considered the realization that he had failed to even seem to belong in 1st grade.

Sure, it was dreadfully boring doing something he had already known how to do since he was a toddler. And the idea of talking to other children who looked at him answering basic math questions as though he was a wild animal was alarming, to say the least. However, he was still supposed to be there, right?

"Light?" Ryuk paused the game, "Whatcha thinking?"

"I want to learn online, so I can get it done faster," he pondered, "But I still feel like I messed up being unable to even belong in school. And other children scare me. It felt like they were going to attack if I did anything out of line."

"Yeah, glad to know I wasn't the only one getting that vibe." He laid back on the bed, "Well, now you're done with that and gonna do fencing. That's the sport with swords, right?"

"Yup. It looks interesting, and I want to see if it's really like _The Princess Bride._ Of course, to see for sure, I would have to study different fencing methods globally, but I'm sure that's easy enough."

He relaxed a bit, coming to the conclusion that the thought of being normal was far scarier than the life he had now. If he was normal, that would mean he didn't have Ryuk in his life, which was not something he wanted to experience.

What did it matter if people thought he was weird? It was just some comments, and he knew he had friends in Matsuda, Ide, and Aizawa, so it wasn't like he was too weird to be befriended. He would be fine.

Besides, even if it was all an act, and he would still have Ryuk around, being ordinary sounded dreadfully boring anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, online school was a thing in the mid 90s (current year in this fic is April 1995). Not a common thing, mind you, but technically a thing. I was shocked to learn this too.


	13. Chapter 13

Light was good at a lot of things. Within a month of starting online school, he pulled a few all-nighters in determination to finish up all of elementary school. Sometimes when Dad was home working late, they would work in the kitchen together, and Light was allowed to look at cases as a distraction. It was less out of learning anything, and more he already knew everything and was going through the motions.

He was used to being the best, far ahead of his time, which made it incredibly frustrating that he was consistently second place in fencing.

"I win," Yamamoto grinned, helping Light up, "You're getting better, Yagami."

"Not good enough it seemed," he shook his rival's hand, "Good game."

Yamamoto cleaned his glasses, "Thanks."

They were the top two students at the Tokyo Fencing School. Light supposed it made sense that Yamamoto was incredible at the sport since his family was mostly professional fencers. As frustrating as it was that he wasn't the best, it was actually exhilarating for there to be someone better than him at something.

He pulled out his planner in his backpack, one of which was to beat Yamamoto, and another was to build up the courage to talk to him for longer than a few moments after a match.

Class only had about five minutes left, and everyone was packing up. Ryuk put a hand on Light's shoulder encouragingly,

"Go talk to him, what's the worst that could happen?"

"He'll think I'm a freak," Light mumbled more to himself than anything else as he got out of his gear and packed up, heading towards the door.

Why couldn't he just be at home with his books? Or honestly, that might make him feel work, seeing characters in the stories he read being able to talk to a boy. Yamamoto was nice; why was he so nervous?

Mother was there to pick him up, and she smiled warmly, and he headed over. But seeing her actually happy with him made him remember that he was only a week away from 490 days. He had to write names tonight before he forgot!

He headed to the car with Mother, seeing Sayu in her car seat, beaming and reaching for him, "Light! Can you do the magic when we get home?"

"Maybe," Light replied, looking to Mother, "Is Dad going to be home tonight? I know he's got a big case."

Mother looked to him before sighing, "Your father isn't going to be home for a while. He's the head of a big case right now."

"Dad's going to be safe, right?"

"Let's hope so." Light quickly realized they weren't headed home, "How about we go out to dinner tonight? Light, I expect you to shower and then be in bed at a reasonable time tonight. It's not good for you to be staying up so late."

"But tomorrow's a weekend, so I can just sleep in, right?"

"Yes, but I would prefer you don't follow in your father's sleeping habits, even if you did inherit his insomnia." The car stopped, and Mother helped Sayu out of her car seat.

Normally he would love to spend some time with Mother without getting lectured, but he had to write names tonight. He hated the week before 490 days, where his nerves got even worse than normal, and every second away from the Death Note made him uneasy until he had written names.

That was how the Death Note became alluring, he supposed, the dependence on it and the pain it brought to be away. If he wrote names more consistently, he suspected it would become an addiction, and he refused to let that happen.

But in moments like this, it was hard to concentrate on anything except writing. Light couldn't decide if it was better or worse that he remembered on his own instead of waking up in the middle of the night and being reminded instinctively.

"Light, are you alright?" Mother asked with concern, "You've hardly touched your food."

"Oh... I'm okay," he shook himself, playing with a strand of his hair as a fidget and bringing himself to eat. Ryuk clearly knew what was going on and eyed him with concern.

"I told you the stress isn't good for you," Mother commented, and Light couldn't help but narrow his eyes bitterly. Maybe she meant well, but when he was growing anxious because he needed to kill tonight was not the time.

"I'm just not very hungry."

Mother's worried expression would never stop being strange to him, and he couldn't help but wonder if she was happy he was getting consistent 2nd place in fencing against a "normal" person.

He squeezed his eyes shut, forcing himself to eat quickly and remain calm. If Mother caught on that he was troubled about something, it could lead to more problems.

He let himself space out a bit through dinner, hoping it would just be over soon. He couldn't help but wonder what Dad or Matsuda or Aizawa or Ide would think if they found out the truth. It was why he limited his kills as much as possible.

But this hadn't happened before. Light was used to being able to get up, grab the notebook, write down a name or two, and then go back to bed. It was probably good he was figuring this out now since it was bound to happen plenty of times in his adult life.

When they finally got home, Mother was feeling his forehead, "Hm, you don't feel warm."

"I'm just a little tired from dealing with people," he replied on auto-pilot, heading upstairs, "I'll grab clothing for a shower."

Sayu ran up to him and hugged his leg, "Come play, Light!"

He bent down to her, ruffling her hair, "I'll play a little later, okay? I'm going to shower and then I'll be down to play." Ryuk picked her up, and she whooped with delight at the assurance, so Light headed upstairs, trying his best to not sprint.

When he got into his room, he locked the door and pulled out the Death Note from the hidden drawer he had built in his desk, pulling out a separate list of criminals on death row or who was exceptionally terrible.

He turned on the news just in case there were more and used his computer to look up some of the criminals in question, writing down five names with different dates and methods before he could even stop himself.

He felt the panic ease from his mind, and he relaxed in his chair, clearing his search history and turning off the television, looking down at the names he had written.

Ryuk was writing in his human observation journal, "So humans develop heightened anxiety when having not written for long periods? Is that concerning just the notebook, or in general?"

"I think just related to the notebook," he put the Death Note back in the desk, "Everyone else will understand if they find out, right? I'm only speeding up the inevitable for criminals on death row or will probably be killed in prison anyway." He couldn't help but remember what Aizawa mentioned about the corrupt system, and he slumped in his chair before deciding not to think about it.

Ryuk only shrugged, "I don't really see any problem with what you're doing. I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Well," he grabbed some pajamas, "The most I can do is make sure nobody finds out."

"You worry too much," Ryuk said, lounging from where he floated in the air, "Now, I'm not gonna harp on you like your mother, but why not try to not worry about things this weekend?"

"But there are so many things to worry about! I'm still 2nd place with fencing, I have junior high, Dad's working a lot again with nobody to stop him from overworking, and let's not forget that every day that passes is one where people who shouldn't could discover my secret."

"Wow you sound like your father," Ryuk commented, lounging against the wall while Light showered behind a curtain, "I'm just saying that maybe relaxing this weekend won't kill you. I'll even help you practice fencing."

Light threw a towel around his waist, exiting the shower, "You'd do that?"

"Sure, why not?"

He beamed, "Thank you, Ryuk!" He psyched himself, "You know what? I'm ahead on my schoolwork. Maybe this'll help."

"I do have conditions," Light cocked his head, and Ryuk grinned, "If I help you beat that boy, you have to actually talk to him."

"And why do you care?" Light teased, "I thought you were just an observer."

"Yeah, but seeing as I am also playing the role of your parent, I feel it is my job to amuse myself by seeing you form a new relationship."

Light pouted as he got dressed, "But that means actually spending time with new people!"

"Isn't that the whole point of you doing a sport?"

"You know, I sometimes hate it when you're right." He took a deep breath, "Alright, I'll do it. I'll try and talk to him." Now fully dressed, he opened the door to head downstairs, "I hope you're ready for a long night of Sayu wanting to play."

"You say that like you weren't just as excited to get picked up when you were her age," to prove a point, he picked Light up, earning a laugh,

"Good point."

OoOoO

Light had had no idea how his lack of sleep had been affecting him until now. He and Yamamoto lunged at each other a third time, sabers clashing, and he felt as though he could actually react fast enough to not get hit.

It was like a cat-and-mouse-like game, chasing and escaping, attacking and dodging. Even with extra practice this weekend and more sleep, it was still a challenge. He didn't know how long the match went on, but he dully noticed everyone was watching now, and he barely managed to parry against a daring lunge from Yamamoto.

He could do this. Beat him at least once to prove to himself he could do it.

He took a deep breath and risked a move that he was beyond lucky actually hit Yamamoto's chest.

Light was hit four times, and Yamamoto five. It was over. Light had won.

Honestly, it was more shocking than anything else, and besides the usual shaking hand and acknowledgment of a good match, Light didn't really process it that much until he was back in the locker room.

"I told you that you could do it!" Ryuk laughed, and Light grinned, removing his gear and stuffing it in his bag, unable to wait until he could tell Dad all about it!

Of course, he couldn't say anything about it until he got home since talking to seemingly no one in the locker room would make him seem weird.

"How did you get those scars?"

Light tensed when he realized Yamamoto was behind him, and he noticed that this was the first time the two of them had interacted outside of gear. He looked down at his arm where the jagged marks remained from nearly two years ago, slightly darker than the rest of his skin. It was probably because he had scratched at them a lot while at the doctor during x-rays and after getting the cast off. "I feel out of a tree."

"Your parents let you climb trees?"

Light chuckled awkwardly, "It's more that they've given up on stopping me." Okay, should he stop the conversation now, go home and regret everything? Or risk being considered a weirdo and keep talking? Was it too much to hope that Yamamoto would keep the conversation going until there was some sort of common interest between them besides fencing?

"You went to Sendagaya Elementary School, right?" Light perked up at that, "That was you I saw in the halls, right?"

That was something he could work with, "Yeah, I used to go there, but I pulled out to do online school, which was a better fit for me so I could learn at a faster pace." He chucked a bit, and he was surprised to see Yamamoto not looking at him like he was abnormal. He seemed excited,

"That's really cool!" He then paused for a second, "Do you want to come over to my place sometime? You probably need some friends if you're not out very often." He grinned, "And I'll be your friend!"

Light beamed, and Ryuk had a smug expression on that he was right. He ignored the Shinigami, only giving a small smirk of acknowledgment, before giving a broad grin, "I'd love that!" 

"Light!" He looked towards the door where he heard Mother, and he grabbed his bag,

"Coming, Mother!" He looked to Yamamoto, who was casually leaning against the wall with his hands behind his head in a relaxed position, "Sorry for not talking to you before."

"It's okay. You're shy, right?" Light nodded sheepishly, only getting a friendly grin in response instead of any judgment. They both hurried out to their respective mothers, cheerfully talking about their day.

"I told you that you could do it," Ryuk nudged him as they got in the car, "Was that so hard?"

"So you made a friend your age, Light?" Mother asked eagerly, and Light nodded,

"Yeah, and I finally beat him in a match too!"

Mother sighed, "Light, sweetie, you don't have to be the best at everything."

"I know, but I like being the best or at least proving I can be." He rocked back and forth in his seat, "So is Dad going to be home tonight?"

"I don't think so, Light."

Light pouted, but then he got an idea, waiting until nighttime to go through with it. He heated up some leftover dinner and snuck out from his balcony, letting Ryuk carry him to the NPA building, where his presence was normal at this point, and the guards didn't comment anymore.

He knocked quickly on Dad's office door before letting himself in, "Hi, Dad!" He held up the food, "I brought you dinner!" 

Dad looked to him from where he had been talking with someone on the other end of a laptop Light didn't recognize. Was it new?

"Light, it's late."

"Has that ever stopped me before?" He ran over, sitting in Dad's lap and giving him the food, "Have you eaten recently?" The growl of Dad's stomach in response to the food told him that no, Dad had not eaten.

"Someone I'm working with was just getting some food for us," Dad replied, and Light looked at the screen, seeing nothing except the gothic letter 'L.'

He quickly realized who this was, "Dad, you're working with L on this case?!" He waved at the camera, "Hi, L!"

_"Hello. You must be the Superintendant's son."_

"Yup!" He looked up to Dad, "You guys are going to be done with the case soon, right?"

"I'm sure we will, Light," Dad assured him, looking tired, "But until we finish, I can't have you coming here unexpected, alright?"

"Oh..." he slumped, "Sorry."

"It's alright this time. Thank you for the meal." He grabbed his phone, dialing a number, "Ide, can you please take Light home?" He waited for a response, "Thank you." He put the phone down. "Apologies, L."

_"It's no trouble. It's only natural for your family to worry about you given the hours you have been pulling."_

Light blinked, "You get some rest too, L, okay? You can't be sleeping any better than Dad."

L was quiet, and another man in a jacket and a hat hiding his face came in, which made the hairs on the back of Light's neck stand on end. Still, he forced a polite smile, "Hello. I'm Light."

"Good evening, Light," was the gentle response that made Light and Ryuk relax, and Light gestured to the computer,

"Are you working with L?"

"That's right. I'm Watari."

Light nodded, and Ide came in, "Hey, Light. Your Dad's busy. Let's get you back home."

"Can you drop me off a block away so Mother doesn't find out?" Light asked, and Ide shrugged.

"I'll walk with you the rest of the way to make sure you get home safely."

"Deal!"

OoOoO

L rewatched the recorded footage of that meeting with the Superintendant from the moment the son, Light, had come in. The boy was unusually bright for his age if his language said anything on the matter, as he had been speaking fluent English when someone his age should only be barely learning.

Watari had commented the boy would be an excellent addition to the house and successor program, but L shut that down for multiple reasons. Most importantly, Light had a functional family he seemed to value deeply, or at least his father. To take him from that seemed cruel.

But there was something else, as L watched the footage again. The moment Light came into the room and sat on his father's lap, in the corner of the screen and slightly behind Mr. Yagami, and apple had floated by, not tied to anything. He didn't see what happened to the fruit after it passed fully behind Mr. Yagami, but he couldn't deny as he watched it again and again, what he was seeing.

Something about the Yagami child went beyond the average human, and L knew to bring Light to the house meant whatever that was would most likely become further hidden. Whatever that thing with the apple was, if it truly was tied to Light, being caught on camera had a 97% chance of being a slip-up that would cause panic if realized.

Watari said he hadn't seen an apple at all, which meant the apple must have disappeared. Well, Light did have a backpack with him, so could that be it? But why would he take an apple in such a manner anyway?

He smirked a bit. This case he was working on was very interesting, and he would wait for now to see what became of Light and take note of this footage. 

Because something told him he was going to meet Light Yagami again, and that could prove to be the most interesting case of all.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There has been a 4 year time skip. Date is July 1999, Light is 10.

Light was distracted from his phone call with Yamamoto while tutoring him in arithmetic by the sound of his parents arguing. In the last four years since he had started school, this wasn't particularly a common occurrence, but it wasn't exactly unheard of.

 _"Hey, is everything okay?"_ Yamamoto asked, and Light looked towards the door to his room, gesturing for Ryuk to investigate. Light frowned a bit, reading through his textbook.

"Yeah. My parents are just loud." He read through the textbooks he was glad to have not donated so Sayu could use them when she was older, "I'm going to go make sure Sayu doesn't wake up, do you think you'll be able to use what I taught you tonight for the test tomorrow?"

 _"Yeah, no worries, Light. Thanks for helping out,"_ he laughed, _"And remember to actually relax for summer break. If you need someone to talk to, rememer to just call."_

"Have fun in France!" He grinned, and they both said their goodbyes before Light hurried downstairs to see what the trouble was.

"Sachiko, I have to go!"

"You promised me you would take care of the kids so I could have the weekend off!"

Dad was clearly torn, "I know, I promised that, and it's really short notice. But you know Mother's not good about that. I don't see my family very often."

"What's going on?" Light asked, "And can you keep it down so Sayu doesn't wake up?"

Dad sighed, "I got a last-minute invitation to my nephew's wedding since they messed up my address and gave me a phone call. I have to be in Hawaii in a week, but that lines up with your mother going out for the weekend with her friends."

"I can take care of things," Light offered, "I've been taking care of myself and Sayu since I was four."

"Light, that's not the same as being home alone for three days," Mother replied, holding her hands up in anger, "It's fine. Whatever. I'll just cancel so you can go to the wedding."

"No, Sachiko, we can think of something." Dad insisted, "It might be more expensive, but I can probably bring Light and Sayu with me."

"Do you really think Sayu will be able to sit through a wedding? And what about Light's secret?" Mother snapped, and Light walked over to the phone, "Light, what are you doing?"

"I'm calling Aizawa." Aizawa answered before Mother or Dad could protest, "Hey, Aizawa! How are you doing?"

_"I've been better, how about you?"_

"Listen, I know you have the baby to worry about," Light said, "But do you mind coming over for the weekend? You don't have to miss work, but just overnight so Sayu and I aren't alone. Dad needs to go out of town short notice."

_"I can make time. I don't care when. Get me out of here. Next weekend?"_

"Yeah."

 _"I'll be there."_ The line went dead, and Light grinned, turning to his shocked parents. 

"Aizawa will be here!" He grinned lazily, seeing Ryuk giving him an impressed thumbs up, "Honestly, you don't have to get all worked up about this until you try some problem solving."

"Light, you can't just call Aizawa or Ide for everything," Dad said, and Light shrugged.

"I spend a lot of time with him, and it's easy to see he wants any excuse he can get to escape his wife." Dad grimaced as though he knew that fact all too well, "I was just giving him as escape he can get paid for. Besides, I know I can take care of Sayu on my own, so this is more for your comfort than mine."

Dad was taken aback, and then he smiled a bit, "I'll make a deal with you, Light. If Aizawa tells me that you can take care of yourself and Sayu, I'll let you start being alone with her. My mother was leaving my sister alone with me when she was your age."

Light blinked, both at the deal and the family details that hadn't been brought up before, not that he had ever thought to ask. He decided not to push it because surely there was a reason he hadn't met his relatives—perhaps to keep his secret—and he headed upstairs to check on Sayu.

Sayu was awake playing with her dolls. At seven years old, she adored all kinds of toys, but surprisingly her games often involved being a police officer. Light felt a bit of envy that she already knew what she wanted to be, and he was unsure. He knew he wanted the help people and change the laws and such, but weren't most politicians corrupt?

A dark part of his mind pitched the idea of using the Death Note to force change, but he shook that away. As corrupt as the system may be, killing politicians wouldn't get him anywhere if he wanted to make a change. But to become one himself meant he was outnumbered by those who were self-serving and wanted to become rich.

She looked up, "Why were Mommy and Daddy fighting?"

"They were tired and didn't have basic problem-solving skills," he explained with a nonchalant hand gesture, "Aizawa's coming over next weekend."

Her face lit up, "Is he bringing the baby?"

"Maybe," he sat down with her, "I have a mission for you. We have to prove to Mother and Dad that we can take care of ourselves." Well, he supposed they wouldn't be alone. They would still have Ryuk, as always.

Sayu pondered this, "I could do that. But you need to help me with my homework."

"I already do that but okay," they shook hands, and Light got up to head to bed, and he was surprised to have Dad come in when he was reading with Ryuk.

"Hey, did your mother put my suitcase in your closet again?" He opened the closet and paused at the sight of nothing hung up and all in a massive pile on the floor, before he took the suitcase off the shelf and slowly closed the closet, "Well, I'm never looking in there again."

"Dad?" Light bit his lip, "Do you not see your family often because of my secret?"

"What? No, it's nothing like that at all," Dad sat down with him, "It's just... you'll understand when you're older. There are some aspects of my family life that you shouldn't have to understand yet."

"But I'm smart, right?" Light tried, "And I know things."

Dad sighed, pulling Light close, "Yes, Light, but sometimes there are things that anyone would be happy to not know. You're smart, but you're still young."

"Can I meet your sister one day, Dad?" He asked, and then noticed an expression of unimaginable pain on Dad's face that he tried to hide but failed as he pulled Light closer,

"I wish you could... she loved you so much, Light."

Suddenly, it clicked, and Light realized the kind of pain Dad was in, turning to hug him tightly. It was this silent confirmation that he knew his aunt was dead that made Dad come undone and openly weep. He tried to not do that often since Light had gotten into the habit of catching him when the panic attacks set in, but it was raw moments like this that made Light know to never be ashamed of his emotions.

"Why don't you see my cousins more often?" He asked hesitantly, and Dad laughed, wiping his eyes,

"If you spent your teenage years with your insufferable brother in law, you'd stay far away too." He smiled, "I do talk to the kids occasionally, but I already know if the boys knew about your secret they would have tried all sorts of dangerous shenanigans with you to test your abilities."

"That sounds fun!" Ryuk nudged Light, "Are you sure you don't want to sneak into the suitcase?"

Dad got up, "I'll talk with them at the wedding and pray your cousin doesn't have as bad taste in spouses as his mother."

"Or yours, Soichiro," Ryuk snarked, laying down lazily.

"Night, Dad!"

Dad kissed Light's forehead, "Goodnight, Light." He left the room, and Light jumped up and to his desk, grabbing a piece of spiral notebook paper and a pen.

"Alright, Ryuk, we need a game plan for this weekend."

"Like... which _Final Fantasy_ game to play? Blindfold style?" Light smirked a bit at the mention of his new favorite challenge with Ryuk, for one of them to be blindfolded and playing the game, and the other needing to explain what to do to not die. It worked for practicing communication skills if he wanted to be able to work in a team or be an influential person one day.

"No, like a way to prove I can take care of myself and Sayu for a weekend."

"And maybe the baby if Shuichi brings it over."

"Right..." he bit the end of his pen, "Dad did most of the actual baby work with Sayu, and I just kept her busy. Babies aren't hard, right? You just feed it, maybe sleep it." He huffed, spinning around in his chair, "I'm starting to sound like you referring to babies as 'it.'" Ryuk cackled, munching on an apple,

"You take after me so much." He sat down next to Light, "But babies seem like a lot of work. I wouldn't know, because the most I did was feed you, bathe you, play with you, and change your diaper when your mother wanted to pretend you didn't exist."

".....So you raised me and actually know what you're doing?"

"Knew what I was doing? Absolutely not. I just copied your Dad, Hideki, and Shuichi." He shrugged, "But I guess I have some understanding of it."

"Alright!" Light started writing, "I am going to avoid asking for help, but I may need help compling a list of things I need in the event I do need to take care of a child."

"The tables are turning as you decide to take care of Shuichi and possibly his child," Ryuk cackled, "Well, this ought to be interesting."

OoOoO

When Aizawa sat down on the couch, his six-month-old daughter in hand, Light already knew something was seriously wrong. He had grown up his whole life with Aizawa, and not only could he tell that he had lost his passion and it was no better than the last months since Yumi was born, but he was also sitting a little weird as though trying to not straighten or relax.

"Baby!" Sayu took baby Yumi, "Come on, baby! Let's go play."

"No," Aizawa grunted a bit as he sat up, taking Yumi, "She's too little. I have a mat or something for her to play on. Eriko's determined to work as long as possible, even though I keep telling her she can work as much as she wants to and being a parent won't change that—" he took a breath and winced, stopping his tangent, "Nevermind."

Light's brow furrowed, "Aizawa, are you okay?"

"Yeah, just a little tired." He smiled, "Having a baby and working late hours isn't easy. At least she's not flying or crawling into vents. Don't get me wrong, you're a good kid, but I do not know how your father dealt with it."

He sat down next to Aizawa, staring intently at his chest, taking note of exactly the way he was sitting, "Why are you sitting funny?"

"I'm just a little sore from an incident with a case," was the bitter reply, "Nothing to worry about, Light." But the harshness of the statement struck Light as odd, and he made eye contact with Ryuk, who casually opened Aizawa's shirt, much to his loud protest as Light took the sleeping Yumi and laid her on her back on a play mat.

"Apple Demon!" Aizawa shouted, going to close his shirt, but Light saw it. The bruising, and he stopped him. "Hey, you can't just open someone's shirt like that!"

"What happened?" Light didn't touch the bruising, trying to get a feel for what exactly he was dealing it. Was it broken ribs? What was the severity? Was it just bruised?

Sayu cocked her head at him, "Uh... Light, that's bruises. It's not rocket science."

"Yeah, but," he saw Yumi had rolled over and was trying to get around like that, "Gah! Sayu can you take her?" He went back to examining Aizawa's ribs, gently prodding them and getting a pained response, "Yeah, broken." He looked up, "Have you gone to the doctor?"

"Not yet. I've dealt with worse on my own."

"That's not good!" He jumped up, "Stay there, I'm getting my notes to see what to do." Aizawa didn't even question why he would have notes for that, and Light hurried upstairs to grab his medical notebook with notes about dealing with any medical situation from what he had learned in his books.

Ryuk looked over his shoulder, "Ice, pain killers, deep breaths?"

"Yeah, and doctor, but I can't drive, and chances of making him drive are none, meaning I should call Ide to force him to the doctor." He grabbed his cell phone, sending a quick text that Aizawa broke himself and was stubborn, and hurried back downstairs, Ryuk grabbing the ice pack and wrapping it in a towel, and Light grabbed the ibuprofen. "Alright! I have ice, meds, and Ide is one his way and going to force you to go to the doctor while I take care of your baby!"

"You are going to give yourself an atlas complex, kid," Aizawa grumbled, "If you don't have one already."

"Atlas complex..." he thought back to that, "Oh. The one where the person wants to take responsibility for everything? Nah, I don't have that. You've just helped me my whole life and I want to return the favor."

Sayu was lying on her stomach, playing peek-a-boo with Yumi and having the time of her life before picking her up, "I'm gonna go play dress up with Yumi!" Light snapped his fingers, gesturing to Ryuk to take Yumi and hold her safely.

"That is not okay," Aizawa commented, "Watching the chief's baby fly is one thing, but when it's your own baby, that is just not right."

"Come on, you know as well as I do that Ryuk's carrying her and she's not really flying." He gently put the ice pack to Aizawa's ribs, "Lay down."

"I can take care of myself. Didn't you already call Ide?"

"Yeah, because I would rather delay the inevitable."

"So what exactly is Ryuk?" Ah, the question Light had known was coming for years, "Do you even know?"

"I don't know," he lied, "And honestly, it's not my business as long as he's not hurting anyone." He bit his lip as he handed Aizawa the ibuprofen to take, "How did you even do this? You said it was a case, but wouldn't someone know about it?"

"Ide was on another case and he's the only one who cares enough to notice," was the sardonic answer, "But it could be worse."

"Deep breaths," Light reminded him, "To avoid pnemonia."

Sayu came down, carrying Yumi, seeming to have taken her from Ryuk. Yumi was crying where she lay on Sayu's shoulder, "Light, I can't make her stop crying."

"Give her to me," Aizawa said, and when his daughter was in his arms, he examined her for a moment, "She's hungry. I have some baby food in my bag."

"Oh! I also got formula!" Light hurried to the kitchen and mixed up some formula in a bottle, "Here we go!"

He jumped a bit when he heard frantic knocking on the door, and Ryuk opened the door as Ide came running in, "Shuichi! Light texted me that you're hurt!"

"I'm fine," Aizawa insisted, ice against his ribs, "My ribs are just a little bruised."

"That is not just a _little_ bruised!" Light sat on the ottoman while he fed Yumi, watching Ide fret over his partner. "That's it, I'm taking you to the hospital!"

"What?" Aizawa yelped as he ended up in Ide's arms in a bridal-style carry, "I'm fine, Hideki!"

"Tell that to your ribs," Ide replied dryly, looking to Light, "Are you coming with or can you watch Yumi?"

"I'll watch Yumi," Light offered, "Hospitals are boring and chances of not losing track of Sayu is about 23%." He sat Yumi up as the adults left, "Well, it looks like it's just us, Yumi." Yumi giggled and stuck her hands in her mouth.

Sayu looked to her brother for guidance, "What do we do now, Light? Can we eat treats?" 

"You know what? Fine, go get yourself a treat, but not too much!" he set Yumi on her stomach on the mat with her toys. That seemed like the right thing to do. He turned to his notes, remembering things Aizawa mentioned Light used to do as a baby, so he knew what to look out for. Flying shouldn't be an issue, but the vents may pose a threat.

Was it safe to take a few steps away to the kitchen to make dinner? That sounded okay. He went to make some noodles as a quick dinner, waiting for the water to boil when Yumi started making noises of distress.

"What do you need? What do you need?" He hurried over, laying down at her level as she continued to whine, "I don't speak that language! Um..." maybe she was tired? She didn't seem to need a diaper change. He moved over to the closet, grabbing the foldable portable crib playpen thing they still had from when Sayu was little, just in case another surprise pregnancy happened. 

Getting everything set up in the closet as a makeshift nursery, he picked Yumi up to set her inside, and she giggled, grabbing his hair and pulling.

"Ow, ow," he winced, "You can stop now." He had to sit her on his arm and use his other hand to free his hair, and they lay her down, leaving the door partially open so he could hear her, and he looked to Sayu, a finger at his lips.

"Is she sleeping?" Sayu asked, and Light nodded,

"Yeah. If you turn on a movie, it needs to be on a low volume." He sighed, "So how are you doing, Sayu?"

"I'm good!" She chirped, stirring in a bowl, "I want Dad's cookies, so I'm making cookies." Light smiled fondly, knowing Dad did make phenomenal cookies, only ever saying it was a family recipe.

"Do you want any help?"

Sayu shrunk down a bit, "Maybe with the oven? It scares me." Then she straightened, her pigtails bobbing with her movements, "But no more helping! I'm gonna be Mom now!" She grabbed Mother's apron and tied it. Light went to put the noodles in the boiling water, but she pointed her whisk at him, "No! Bad brother!"

He held his hands up, "Um... okay then? I'll read then." He grabbed an apple from Ryuk and sat on the couch, reading one of the Sherlock Holmes novels, _A Study in Scarlet._ He loved Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works, and it made him want to try his hand in writing one day.

But the real reason he loved the stories so much was that they made him think of L. Even if it had been four years and he had only met the detective for a few moments, he couldn't get that gothic letter out of his head. He had asked Dad about L, only to get the answer he had been around for years and was the best at what he did. Nobody except Watari knew who he was or where he came from.

Part of Light wanted to use his skills to hunt down L and learn who he was. He wanted to know more about this mysterious person who worked with the police worldwide. The only thing stopping him was fear of his secret being discovered. No doubt a world-renown detective would catch on and want to discover what was going on, and therefore, the Death Note could be in jeopardy.

It was moments like this he hated needing to be so careful so Ryuk wouldn't be discovered. He wanted to meet L; he wanted to be able to be fully honest with Yamamoto. Matsuda knew the truth, but he was busy with school and studying for the entrance exams in January. Light was almost through high school online, but he still had one year's worth left, which, while he estimated he could get done by December if he really put his mind to it, he wasn't allowed to take the entrance exam until he was seventeen. He could help Matsuda study and practice since he planned to be joining the police academy and the NPA, Light had seven years of doing nothing before he could take the test.

He planned to maybe start tennis since he had managed to best Yamamoto after years of figuring out his tricks and won some awards for it. It was still a challenge to beat him, but he also wanted a change of pace so things wouldn't be boring for him and Ryuk.

Mother said he should spend that free time going out so he would finally start crushing on girls like other boys his age, and Light tried; he really did, but he just didn't understand the appeal. _Great,_ he had thought bitterly to himself, _Another thing that makes me 'not normal.'_

He hadn't told anyone, but he was beginning to see the other boys in his fencing classes who had begun approaching him for tips as far more interesting than the girls who sometimes said hello. He had asked Matsuda about it and was glad to get a normal response that maybe he was still too young, or maybe he would never be attracted to girls like that, rather guys. It was probably something to be sure of when he was older, but Matsuda even confided that he found himself attracted to both men and women.

If he did end up just being attracted to men, he was pretty sure Dad would accept him, Aizawa and Ide wouldn't care in the slightest and just say "good for you" or something like that, but what about Mother? What about Yamamoto? He knew Yamamoto's family was pretty traditional like Mother, so what would come of that?

Even if it wasn't something he should be worrying about until he was older, he had a tendency to worry about things, as Ryuk had pointed out on more than one occasion.

He was snapped out of his book and thoughts about possible futures and mystery detectives when he heard Yumi crying.

"Light, she's up," Ryuk gestured to the closet, "She's making the noises."

Light got up, "You alright, Sayu?"

"I got the cookies in the oven!" She shouted triumphantly, bouncing up and down in her victory dance.

Light took Yumi out of the playpen and immediately knew the issue, "I'm going to go upstairs and change her. I'll be right back, Sayu."

He set her on a mat on the bathroom counter, opening Aizawa's bag he had brought with him, pulling out a diaper. Ryuk chuckled,

"I should warn you, she could roll off."

"She could what?!" He put one hand on Yumi's stomach quickly while he used his knee to support the bag and used his hand to dig inside, also seeing a garbage bag probably for dirty diapers. He held up the clean diaper, "Uh... how do you do this?"

"I'll show you," Light sat on the counter, watching intently as Ryuk instructed him on what to do, involving cleaning Yumi off and tossing the dirty diaper in the bag before putting on a clean one, "I'm not doing that again. It would have been much more fun to watch you struggle. I thought I was done with the diapers when you were out of them."

"Thanks, Ryuk." Light put Yumi back in her onesie and picked her up, sitting on the floor and lifting her in the air a few times, seeing she stopped crying when he did that. It was exhausting after a few round, lasting probably around fifteen minutes before he carried her downstairs, and he heard a cry from the kitchen, and he sprinted, Yumi in his arms as he saw Sayu was shaking, and the cookies were on the stove, "Sayu!" He rushed to her side, "Are you okay? Did you burn yourself?" He shut the oven the rest of the way with his foot, "What's wrong?"

"I almost slipped," she whimpered, "That was scary." She hugged his neck, and Light passed Yumi to Ryuk as he embraced Sayu, assuring her it was alright,

"Sayu, you could have told me the cookies were done and I would get it out of the oven."

"But I want to be grown up too!" She whined, and Light put his hands on her shoulders,

"Sometimes people need help. It's not about how capable you are, just that it makes things easier to have assistance." He didn't know what he would do without Ryuk.

Yumi began to cry again, unlike Light not being a fan of being carried by something she couldn't see, and Light took her back and sat her in a high chair. He had been ready for the moment he ended up taking care of Yumi since he called Aizawa, and he was glad Dad was prepared enough to still have kept everything from when Sayu was a baby in the storage unit not far from their house.

Sayu came over after a few moments, "I have dinner!" She put the seasoned noodles in front of Light and where her own place would be, and Light noticed an apple next to his bowl, which he slipped to Ryuk, and there were also cookies in the center. "Can I feed the baby?" She gestured to the baby food Light had been about to feed her.

"Alright." Light ate his dinner, watched Sayu feeding Yumi, or rather gave Yumi the spoon and let her make a mess and seeming to hit everywhere except her mouth. He watched for a moment before Sayu took the spoon and guided it to where it had to go, then he grabbed some paper towels for Sayu. He finished dinner and hurried upstairs to take out the bathroom trash before it sat too long, took it out to the can on the street, and returned.

"Did you like dinner, Light?" Sayu asked, and he nodded,

"Yeah, you're really good with seasonings, Sayu." He grabbed one of the cookies, "Can I have one?" She nodded, and he took a bite, grinning, "Woah! These are great!" He had been slightly worried something would go horribly wrong, but he was relieved to find nothing did.

Sayu pouted, however, "But they're not like Dad's."

"But are they Dad's? No, they're yours, and they're amazing." He took another bite, "You could probably start a bakery if you keep this up."

"You think so?" Her eyes lit up with that pure joy Light would do anything to preserve. He knew the world would throw a lot at them, but even if he had to use the Death Note and expose himself, he wouldn't let anyone harm her.

Ryuk ate one of the cookies under the table where Sayu couldn't see, "I prefer apples," Light giggled, then looked up when the door opened, and Ide came in, still carrying Aizawa in his arms and kicking the door shut behind him. Aizawa still didn't seem happy about this but had accepted it more, relaxing with his head on Ide's shoulder.

"Da!" Yumi clapped with glee, reaching for her father as he was rested on a part of the couch while Ide got it set up like a bed at an angle, so Aizawa was rested at an angle.

"How is he?" Light asked, and Aizawa rolled his eyes,

"I'm not unconscious or anything, you can ask me. I'm fine. It's just a fracture, and I got my ribs bound," Aizawa looked up at Ide with a smirk, "I told you I was fine on my own."

"What if the rib broke off completely and punctured your lung?" Ide asked in exasperation, "You could have died and who would know how to help you?"

Aizawa raised a skeptical eyebrow, "Don't you think you're being a little dramatic?"

"No," Light defended, "That could have been a possibility and you may not have lasted until an ambulance came."

"You too, Light?!" He groaned, "Can I take the bindings off, it's getting uncomfortable to breathe."

"Why did they give you bindings?" Light asked as Ide helped Aizawa out of the bindings, "Doesn't that defeat the purpose of deep breaths?"

"You're the one who told me to go to the doctor and now you're critiquing the doctor?" Aizawa asked incredulously, "Why am I not surprised. Was Yumi okay while you were gone?"

Sayu finished cleaning Yumi up, "She was great! She napped, and we fed her, and changed her, and I played with her." She set Yumi down at Aizawa's side, and Yumi smiled to see him.

Light turned to Ide, "I assume you're staying?"

"Yeah, I'm not leaving him here injured, just in case something goes horribly wrong." He clapped his hands, "Alright, ladies, gentlemen, and apple demons," Sayu didn't comment, having long since assumed apple demon was a code for Light's abilities since she still didn't know Ryuk was a separate entity. "I think the plan for tonight is a movie, those cookies on the table, and then bed for Yumi and Sayu?"

"Why do I have to go to bed and Light can stay up?" Sayu complained, and Light ruffled her hair,

"Because I am older than you, and you still need to keep your school internal clock."

"No fair, you don't have to go to school." Light laughed and relaxed.

They ended up watching Disney's _Hercules,_ for the sake of the little girls. Light did his best to just sit in his armchair and listen to Ryuk instead of the mythological inaccuracies that physically pained him, such as why was Hades the villain in this movie? Why not Hera? Why was Zeus seen as decent in this film? Hades was the most reasonable of the gods in the legends. And where was Persephone?! And he wasn't even going to touch the name issue of the main protagonist of this movie.

Besides making his mythology nerd side cringe, it did beg the question. If anyone found out about his connection to a Death God, did it matter what he did? Would he only be remembered as the villain?

He looked over to where Aizawa was asleep, and it never stopped being funny to Light that any form of television meant for kids worked faster on Aizawa than tranquilizers. Ide had a loving smile on his face, and Yumi was lying on her father's leg, and Sayu was leaning into the television. Ryuk laid on the floor, cackling at everything wrong with the movie.

These people, Matsuda, and Dad, were basically his family. They had been with him through thick and thin, even at the beginning with the strangeness of Ryuk's presence. Ryuk supported him no matter what and cared for him when nobody else could.

As long as they thought he wasn't a monster, did it matter what the world thought?


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The date is December 1999

Light pressed his palm to his eyes in the bathroom during fencing practice. He had thought it was just a minor headache earlier, which was by no means uncommon, but as the class had gone by, he was starting to think it was something else.

Ryuk was watching over his shoulder as he splashed cold water on his face, "You okay."

"Just playing a game." Ryuk brightened,

"What game?"

"Is my headache from dehydration, caffeine withdrawal, lack of proper nutrition, stress, not enough sleep, not talking to Dad about possibly needing glasses, or a brain tumor." He groaned and covered his eyes with his arms. Why were the bathroom lights so damn bright? One of the lightbulbs had even burned out, so it should be dimmer in here.

"That doesn't sound very fun."

"It's not." He headed out of the bathroom in hopes of grabbing his water bottle. He was stopped by Sensei.

"There you are, Yagami." Sensei's brow furrowed, "What's wrong?"

"Bad headache," he whispered, shielding his eyes from the lights, "Do you mind if I sit out while I try to get this under control?"

"Of course," Sensei replied, "Do you want me to call your mother to pick you up?"

"Sure," he murmured, "Not like she'll show up, but it won't hurt. I'll be in the locker room if that's alright."

"Take your time," Sensei said softly to him, helping him into the locker room, where he laid down on one of the benches, wincing as the pain spiked just above his eyebrow.

When they were alone, Ryuk switched the lights off and hovered over Light, not talking, knowing that it would only make things worse. But the pale red glow of Ryuk's eyes was enough to make Light groan and turn on his side.

He heard the door open, but the lights weren't turned on. He was startled to hear Yamamoto whispering, "Hey, Sensei wanted me to tell you your mom's coming to pick you up." He shut the door, finding his way in the dark and sitting on the floor in front of Light's face, "Are you okay?"

"Just a headache," he covered his eyes with his arm and then felt what seemed like a coat being draped over him like a blanket and his head being moved, so he was resting in Yamamoto's lap.

"I'm not gonna leave you until your mom shows up, okay?"

Light hummed a bit in acknowledgment, glad for the darkness to hide how red his face became despite the pain with his head in Yamamoto's lap. Someone like him taking the time to leave the lesson and matches to stay with Light and make sure he was okay.

He felt fingers in his hair, massaging his scalp, and he didn't say anything, unsure he could talk without stammering even if he wasn't in skull-splitting pain.

They stayed there for a while, and Light drifted between wakefulness and sleep, not realizing he had snuggled closer to Yamamoto.

The door opened again, and he woke up from the half-sleep he had been in, hearing Mother's voice whispering to Yamamoto, "I'll take him," and suddenly he was being picked up and carried by Mother just like how Sayu was. But Light never got this treatment. He was never held like he mattered.

"Take care of him," Yamamoto insisted, and Light didn't know how Mother responded as he buried his face in her shoulder, whimpering a bit. It was too bright.

He shivered at the cold air of outside as he didn't have his winter coat on, but relaxed somewhat when he was laid down in the back of the car with a blanket over him that he pulled over his face. He curled into a ball, clutching his head, trying to force the pulsing in his head to stop.

When they got home, he was carried upstairs and sat down on his bed, and Mother closed the curtains so not even the street lamp outside could get in, "I'm gonna go get you something to help. Can you get out of your gear?" He was already laying down, and Mother sighed, "Apple Demon, help him." Then she left, and Ryuk looked down at Light,

"Alright, how do you get this stuff off?" he supported Light's head as he tried to figure out how to unstrap the fencing gear. Light helped him out for forced himself to stand and lean against the dresser, kicking off his sweaty clothes and tossing the shirt in the hamper, tossing on an oversized shirt and pants, focusing on keeping himself upright before falling onto his bed.

Mother came back with some things and shut the door behind her, helping him sit up, holding out a small cup with dark red liquid inside, "This helps your father when he gets migraines. He can't swallow pills when he gets like this, so I doubt you would be able to. It's gonna make you feel a little silly, but it won't hurt as much, okay?" Light took the little cup and winced at the strong artificial cherry flavor, but that was fine if it would help.

He felt something pleasantly cold being placed on his eyes as he was laid down and wrapped up in the contents of his blanket nest. He felt his exhaustion beginning to overwhelm him, and he slowly drifted to sleep.

OoOoO

For three days, Mother took care of him with his migraine. For Light, it was mostly a blur between being slightly high on strong pain killers and coming in and out of consciousness. But in his few moments of lucidity when the migraine was tolerable, he couldn't help but wonder why Mother was helping him. She _never_ helped him!

He was going through his anatomy workbook, trying to focus on the words since he felt much better but was still too tired to get out of bed. Mother came in with some rice, voice soft,

"Hey. Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah. Thank you." He took the rice, and Ryuk was watching Mother with a level of suspicion Light hadn't seen before as she sat down next to him.

"Can you read that?"

"Hm?"

"Your father told me that he started getting migraines when he was your age and needed reading glasses. I'm gonna take you to the eye doctor when you feel better, okay? We'll try to manage this to make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Why are you taking care of me?" He asked, staring at the ceiling, "What changed?"

Mother seemed taken aback by the question before brushing back his bangs out of his eyes, "Apple Demon can't help you with everything, now can he?"

"Good point," Ryuk mumbled.

"You take care of yourself so often that it seems like you don't need me." She smiled a bit, "But you needed me this time."

Light didn't fully buy it, but he didn't comment, "So I'm gonna get glasses?"

"Do you have a hard time reading?"

"It's a little blurry if the book's farther away from me, but I can read fine when it's closer to me."

"We'll see what the eye doctor sees, okay? If these migraines are going to be like your father's instead of a one-time thing, we should do our best to figure out what causes it."

"Dad gets these?"

"Sometimes, but they typically kick in at work, so he'll take some medication and lay down at the office." She chuckled a bit, "I know what you're thinking about this being more excuses to check on him, but I already talked to Aizawa and Ide about it to bring him home if it gets too bad." She pulled him close, "You know, even if your secret, you're already such a big help to him. We both love you, Light."

Light tried to wrap his head around this display of motherly affection. It was so uncommon that he didn't know what to do with it, and Mother going out of her way to tell him she loved him? 

A thought occurred to him that she helped because this was normal for a mother to help her son with; no supernatural assistance since Ryuk was clueless on what to do here. He grimaced, even if he did admit it was nice to hear he was loved from Mother instead of being assured she loved him by Dad.

Maybe he could find a way to persuade her to love him all the time? He was content without his human mother's affection—after all, he had Ryuk, who had been a mother figure to him his whole life. Still, there was something nice about being held like this. Was there a way to convince her it was worth her time to at least reach out sometimes?

He decided it didn't matter as he yawned, rubbing his eyes and being laid back down for a nap to get his strength back up. He ended up snuggling with Ryuk, and whether Mother noticed that or not, he didn't particularly care.

OoOoO

"When am I ever going to need this?!" Matsuda was looking at his homework Light was helping him with as they were studying together, "When am I _ever_ going to need to have fractions on top of other fractions?!"

Light laughed, cleaning his new reading glasses. They made reading so much easier, but they got dirty so fast. "It is helpful sometimes."

"Yeah, but I'm planning to go to the police academy. When am I ever going to need this?! Can't we have some freedom of what we get forced down our throats?"

"I do wonder, but I like having the options."

"Says the kid who is gonna be graduating high school with me in March," Matsuda retorted playfully, "You still have your whole life ahead of you and I'm gonna be heading to the academy." He nudged Light with a smirk, "So would you like to explain why you're investigating detective L?" Light rubbed the back of his neck,

"How do you know about that?" 

"I was looking for an eraser and found printed reports of all of L's cases." Matsuda replied, and Light hid his sudden tensing because that was the same drawer as his desk trap for the Death Note that he really was getting worried about because that thing was basically a small bomb. He was considering defusing it unless the situation really called for that. After all, it had been hidden just fine under his mattress for years.

"Yeah, I'm looking for L," Light admitted, "Tracking down the world's greatest detective sounds like a fun challenge."

"What are you gonna do when you find him?" Matsuda asked, and Light paused as he thought about that.

"I don't know. If I tell L I found him, he might move and not give me the time of day. But going up to him and saying I tracked him is creepy. I might just keep it to myself..." he trailed off, leaning back on his hands, "I wonder what L's like," he smiled, thinking about the detective he had grown to look up to.

"And here I thought Yamamoto had won your heart," Matsuda teased, and Light turned bright red, looking away.

"What?!" he laughed awkwardly, "What makes you think that? I mean, sure, he's really nice and incredible, but I wouldn't say won my heart." Ryuk cackled,

"Your face is red, kiddo."

"Not helping, Ryuk!"

Matsuda rolled his eyes, "I'm just teasing you. But it's perfectly normal to have a crush."

"Yeah, but assuming I humor you and you're right, it's one on another boy."

"Do you really think your Dad will care? First thing he did when I started high school was give me a box of condoms since we both know my parents wouldn't help me in that regard, and tell me to not get AIDS." Light rolled his eyes. Dad had realized Matsuda wasn't being taken care of at home and took him under his wing like another son, so of course, that conversation had happened. In a sense, Matsuda was like his older brother.

Then he deflated as he really thought about what if he did feel something for Yamamoto, "It's not _my Dad_ I'm worried about. Besides, I don't even know if he feels the same."

"Ah," Ryuk joined in, "But you're forgetting one key thing: we don't know he _doesn't_ feel the same."

"Don't you use the same argument I used on Ide on me!" Light snapped, but he was grinning nonetheless. Matsuda leaned in, a twinkle in his eyes,

"Oh?" 

"Nothing for you to worry about," he looked down at the books, "Should we get back to work?"

"Fine," Matsuda crossed his arms in a pout, "I really need to get a Ouija Board so I can actually know what Ryuk is saying." His eyes lit up as he pulled out a sheet of notebook paper and a pen, putting a little off to the side of Ryuk but a good estimate of where he was, "Can you write on that?"

"I could, but I want to know what a Ouija Board is," Ryuk said, putting the piece of paper on Matsuda's head. Matsuda looked at the paper,

"Fine, fine, you win, Ryuk. I'll work on these nightmarish fractions." 

A knock on the door startled both of them, and Sayu came in, her pigtails bouncing as she ran in, "Hey Matsu! Mom wanted me to tell you guys dinner's ready. I even set a place for you too, Apple Demon!" 

Light had decided to come clean to Sayu about where his abilities came from about a month ago, now that he was pretty sure she was responsible enough to understand. She was much more open to it than their parents had been initially and content to give Ryuk a place in the family if he truly was a separate entity. However, Light couldn't shake the feeling she thought he was messing with her about having a supernatural companion and was trying to call his bluff.

Matsuda got up, "Thank you for the meal," he helped Light to his feet, "Don't worry, your crush is safe with me." Light hid his face in embarrassment, and Matsuda ruffled his hair.

Light put his reading glasses on his desk and hurried downstairs to see Dad waiting for him, seeming tired after a long day at work. Light ran to embrace him, and he caught a glance at Mother. They still hadn't really talked about what happened last week with her spending days taking care of him. Things were back to normal now that he had his glasses. He still couldn't figure out how exactly he was going to persuade her.

But he decided it didn't matter, at least not for now. For now, he was content to have dinner and further acceptance of Ryuk in the family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know only Americans use "eye doctor" phrase, and there is a reason for why this term was used which will be mentioned in a later chapter.


End file.
